Taxonomy and palaeoecology of Ostracoda from the Middle to Late Pleistocene upper Karewa formation of Kashmir Valley, Northern India

Abstract. Ostracoda from a 25 m thick exposure in sediments of the upper Karewa formation indicate lacustrine conditions in the Kashmir intermontane basin during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. The Middle to Late Pleistocene age is established on the basis of lithostratigraphy and confirmed by two thermoluminescence age determinations at the top of the section. The ostracod assemblages show that the lake water remained fresh or, at most, was very slightly saline, throughout the period represented by the section. Nearly all ostracod taxa identified from the sediments are cold stenothermal forms and they include inhabitants of the littoral and profundal domain as well as running waters and springs. The Ostracoda present within the section indicate that during deposition of the upper Karewa sediments a large, but fairly shallow, well-oxygenated open-basin freshwater lake existed in that central part of the Kashmir Basin. Although the sequences suggest changes in water depth may have occurred, lacustrine conditions were otherwise largely unchanged over the period represented by the section, up until the demise of the lake during the early part of the Late Pleistocene.