Deep-Sea Ostracoda, Taxonomy, Distribution and Morphology

Abstract

The study of the deep-sea ostracoda has made much progress during the last few years. In particular, the paleontological investigations of the sea-floors of the oceans have contributed to this progress. Several statements have been made about the distribution, biology, morphology and ecology of deep-sea ostracods. Based on a checklist of all living deep-sea ostracods known to date (Hartmann, 1985), the present paper discusses the following questions. 1. Do well-defined taxonomic groups of deep-sea ostracods exist? 2. Do morphological characters typical only of deep-sea ostracods and useable as deep sea indicators exist? 3. What do we know about the distribution of deep-sea ostracods? 4. What do we know about the ecology and biology of deep-sea species? A critical evaluation of the existing data is given. In a paper on deep-sea ostracods found at depths of between 1,630 and 5,330 meters and collected by the German Research Vessel Meteor in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the author (Hartmann, 1985) published a checklist of all Recent deep-sea ostracod species known to date. The present paper is an attempt to analyze this checklist with respect to taxonomy (taxonomic diversity), dis- tribution, and morphology of these ostracods, as this has not been done in the above-mentioned paper. The author included all ostracod species (516 species and 4 subspecies) found regularly in depths of more than 1,000 meters in the checklist, even if they also live in shallow water or make vertical migrations.