The Rockalliidae, a new family of Cainozoic Cytheracean Ostracoda

Abstract

Abstract. The Rockalliadae, a new family of Cytheracean Ostracoda, is erected based on Rockallia Whatley, Frame & Whittaker, 1978 and an undescribed genus from the Tertiary of Argentinian Patagonia. Rockallia, hitherto monotypic, is augmented by the description herein of five new species: R. eocenica, R. vscripta and R. inceptiocelata from the Eocene, Neogene and Quaternary of the S.W. Pacific respectively and R. woutersi and R. sp. from the Oligocene and Miocene of N.W. Europe. The older species seem to have lived in relatively shallow water while the younger species are exclusively bathyal and abyssal. The genus is rediagnosed and its origins, evolutionary development and dispersal are discussed.