The Mesozoic ostracod genus Arculicythere Grékoff: further evidence for the southern Gondwana seaway

This paper demonstrates that Arculicythere Grékoff is a widespread taxon in the uppermost Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous of Gondwana. It occurs in Madagascar, India, Israel, South Africa, the Falklands Plateau, Argentina and Australia. The earliest record is from the Upper Tithonian of Madagascar but the most profuse occurrences are in the Albian, when the genus was very widespread around Gondwana. Its distribution seems to be associated with a major southern Gondwana seaway, and the genus provides additional proof of the existence of this corridor. Unlike another endemic gondwanine genus, Majungaella Grékoff, which ranged from earlier in the Jurassic but extended into the Neogene in the Antarctic, or Rostrocytheridea Dingle that survived into the Campanian of the Antarctic, Arculicythere seems to have become extinct in the Albian.