During the Late Paleocene and around the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, there were important mammalian dispersals in Laurasia involving earliest modern mammals such as rodents, primates, perissodactyls, and artiodactyls. The placental carnivorous mammals (Viverravidae, “Miacidae”, Hyaenodontida, Oxyaenodonta) importantly took part in these dispersals. The present article shows that these latter mammals allow reconstructing faunal dispersal scenarios during the early Paleogene. Indeed, they evidenced several dispersal ways among Laurasia, but also with Africa and possibly India. The dispersal phases discussed in the present paper concern the Early Paleocene, Late Paleocene, latest Paleocene (Clarkforkian NALMA), and Paleocene-Eocene transition.
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The current study presents the ostracod communities recovered from 26 shallow waterbodies in southern Kenya, combined with an ecological assessment of habitat characteristics. A total of 37 waterbodies were sampled in 2001 and 2003, ranging from small ephemeral pools to large permanent lakes along broad gradients in altitude (700–2 800 m) and salinity (37–67 200 μS cm−1). Between 0 and 12 species were recorded per site. Lack of ostracods was associated with either hypersaline waters, or the presence of fish in fresh waters. Three of the 32 recovered ostracod taxa, Physocypria sp., Sarscypridopsis cf. elizabethae and Oncocypris mulleri, combined a wide distribution with frequent local dominance. Canonical correspondence analysis on species–environment relationships indicated that littoral vegetation, altitude, surface water temperature and pH best explain the variation in ostracod communities. Presence of fish and water depth also influence species occurrence, with the larger species being more common in shallow waterbodies lacking fish. Based on Chao’s estimator of total regional species richness, this survey recovered about two-thirds (60–68%) of the regional ostracod species pool. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of the valve morphology of 14 ostracod taxa are provided, in order to facilitate their application in biodiversity and water-quality assessments and in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
