New reports of Messinian Lago-Mare episodes from Tunisia: paleoenvironmental implications.

At the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis several parts of the Mediterranean Basin were affected by intense conti-nentalization with the deposition of sedimentary facies characterized by brackish to fresh water fauna called Lago-Mare in the lower basin area. In eastern Tunisia, the micropalaeontological analysis performed in two stratigraphical sections sampled on upper Messinian deposits allowed us to identify these sedimentary facies in south Mediterranean regions for the first time. Stratigraphic levels with a high concentration of fresh or brackish water ostracods were identified in two sections and record two contemporary Lago-Mare events. The wadi El Kebir section shows levels dominated by Cyprideis agrigentina and Cyprideis torosa typical to a lagoon or estuary while the Salakta section presents a very rich ostracod fauna consisting essentially of Amnicythere propinqua, Dar-winulina stevensoni, Mediocytherideis aff. punctata, Ily-ocypris gibba and of very abundant specimens belonging to the genera Candona and Loxoconcha characterizing a true fresh water environment.