Mixed ostracod faunas, co-occurrence of marine Oligocene and non-marine Miocene taxa at Pinarhisar, Thrace, Turkey

Abstract

New samples from the Ergene Formation, the Manganese Beds at the base and the Fish Beds in the upper part of the unit at the Pinarhisar section (Thrace, Turkey), contain both fresh- and brackish water (mesohaline) ostracod assemblages with some taxa hitherto unknown from this locality. The assemblage is indicative of a late Middle to Late Miocene (Sarmatian) age. This corresponds to previously published brachyhaline to marine taxa of the Early Oligocene, which are, however, reworked. In Turkish literature similar faunas have been recorded at other sections near the northern rim of the Ergene Basin south of the Istiranca Massif, but have not been interpreted as taphocoenoses. Other fossils, inlcuding palynomorphs and other plant remains, pelecypods, otoliths, fishes and mammalia, from these sections are also indicative of a Miocene age. In deeper neritic Oligocene deposits at Kartal Tepe ostracod species of the genus Pokor- nyella have been found that also occur reworked in the Miocene at Pinarhisar. Fifteen taxa from both the autochthonous Miocene and the allochthonous Oligocene are taxonomically considered and illustrated, and their stratigraphical and salinity ranges are summarized.