Steineck, P L. (1981). Upper Eocene to Middle Miocene ostracode faunas and paleo-oceanography of the North Coastal Belt, Jamaica, West Indies. Marine Micropaleontology, 6 (4), 339-366

217510

Steineck, P L

1981

6 (4), 339-366

Publication

The ostracode fauna of the Montpelier Group (Upper Eocene-Middle Miocene) exposed in the western part of the North Coastal Belt of Jamaica contains representatives of three paleo-environments. Allochthonous shelf and littoral species, characterized by abraded carapaces and eye tubercles, and a diverse group of archibenthal (slope) forms are present throughout. Species restricted to the World Ocean Psychrosphere ( > 1000m), notably Bradleya dictyon, Australoecia tipica, Agrenocythere hazelae and Macrocypris ssp., first occur in sediments of earliest Miocene age (planktonic foraminiferal zone N4). Their presence establishes a minimum age for the entry into the Cayman Trench of frigid ( < 8-10 degree C) water masses drawn from the Atlantic thermohaline stratification. Montpelier deposition took place either on a broad step intervening between the northern edge of the Clarendon Platform and the abyssal basins of the Cayman Trench or on a Tertiary analog of the existing north island slope. These results have emphasized the value of detailed taxonomic and morphologic studies of deep-sea ostracodes in geohistorical reconstruction

Ostracoda

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