A late Messinian brackish water ostracod fauna of Paratethyan aspect from Le Vicenne Basin (Abruzzi, central Apennines, Italy)

In the lower portion of the sedimentary succession of the Le Vicenne Basin (Abruzzi, central Italy) 8 m of siltitic clays crop out, which bear a rich ostracod association in which the following fourteen taxa have been collected: Candona (Camptocypria) cf. C. (C.) venusta (Zalلnyi), Candona (Camptocypria) sp., Leptocythere idonea Mandelstam, Markova, Rozyeva and Stepanajtys, Leptocythere multituberculata (Livental), Leptocythere palimpsesta (Livental), Leptocythere propinqua (Livental), Euxinocythere (Maeotocythere) praebaquana (Livental), Tyrrhenocythere pontica (Livental), Tyrrhenocythere ruggierii Devoto, Cyprideis agrigentina Decima, Cyprideis aff. C. tuberculata (Méhes), Loxoconcha eichwaldi Livental, Loxoconcha sp. and Loxoconcha cf. L. ludica Olteanu. The composition of the ostracod fauna shows a remarkable Paratethyan influence (ten species out of twelve are characteristic of the Paratethys domain and, among those, Leptocythere multituberculata, Leptocythere idonea and Loxoconcha cf. L. ludica are recorded for the first time in Italy). On the basis of comparison with similar ostracod assemblages found in the Mediterranean Basin (Spain, Corsica, France, Greece), the Le Vicenne association has been referred to the Loxoconcha djaffarovi Zone (Carbonnel, 1978), correlated with the uppermost Messinian. During this time-interval the Mediterranean Basin was characterized by several isolated shallow water brackish basins which reproduced the environmental conditions existing in the Paratethyan domain during the Neogene. The existence of these widespread brackish water-bodies favoured the westward migration of the Paratethyan ostracod faunas and their colonization of the Western Tethys domain.