Initial report on ostracod fauna from the Messina Straits (Ionian sea, northeastern Sicily)

During oceanographic cruises on board of the R/V “Universitatis” in 2005-2007, more than 300 samples of sea-floor sediments from the Messina Straits were collected at depths between 50 and 1350 metres. Sixty samples were used for ostracods analysis. Twenty-five samples resulted devoid of ostracods, while in the remaining 35 samples 115 taxa have been identified, 101 at specific level and 14 at genus level or doubtful species. Specimens have been counted. Sixteen species are documented only by living specimens while all the remaining species belong to death assemblages. In all the samples ostracods are rare and very dispersed, often they consist of isolated valves or even of single valves. The faunistic contamination is very high and widespread; all the samples are characterised by the co-occurrence of ostracods belonging to different environments. The frequency of juveniles is also very high. The structural characteristics and composition of the ostracofauna of each sample document, therefore, a depositional environment strongly influenced by intense hydrodynamic phenomena. Twelve taxa belonging to the superfamily Cytheroidea Baird, 1850 are described briefly and illustrated