An early record of the genus Cytheridella Daday, 1905 (Ostracoda, Limnocytheridae, Timiriaseviinae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Mali, West Africa: palaeobiogeographical and palaeoecological considerations

Abstract. The limnic ostracod genus Cytheridella Daday, 1905 (Limnocytheridae, Timiriaseviinae), previously only known from Plio–Pleistocene sediments and Recent lacustrine environments of South and Central America, the Caribbean Islands, Florida and Equatorial Africa, and from earliest Eocene to Early Oligocene Eurasian localities, is found for the first time in the Upper Cretaceous (undifferentiated Campanian–Early Maastrichtian) of northern Mali, West Africa, suggesting an African origin for the genus. The association with the brackish-water ostracod genus Sarlatina suggests a mixo- or oligohaline environment for the Cretaceous species of Cytheridella.