AN EARLY RECORD OF THE GENUS CYTHERIDELLA DADAY, 1905 (OSTRACODA, LIMNOCYTHERIDAE, TIMIRIASEVIINAE) FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS OF MALI, WEST-AFRICA - PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHICAL AND PALEOECOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The limnic ostracod genus Cytheridella Daday, 1905 (Limnocytheridae, T imiriaseviinae), 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 Eo cene to Early Oligocene Eurasian localities, is found for the first ti me in the Upper Cretaceous (undifferentiated Campanian-Early Maastrich tian) of northern Mall, West Africa, suggesting an African origin for the genus. The association with the brackish-water ostracod genus Sarl atina suggests a mixo- or oligohaline environment for the Cretaceous s pecies of Cytheridella.