Entomoneis calixasini sp nov., a new fossil diatom from the Turkish Marmara Sea sediments

Christine Paillès (1) , Marie-Madeleine Blanc-Valleron (2) , Michel Poulin (3) , Antoine Crémière (4) , Omar Boudouma (5) , Catherine Pierre (6)

1 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement
2 CR2P - Centre de recherche sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements
3 Recherche et Collections
4 LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques
5 iSTeP - Institut des Sciences de la Terre de Paris
6 BTP - Biogéochimie-Traceurs-Paléoclimat

A new fossil diatom with a well-developed raphe-bearing keel and continuous junction line in the strongly bilobate wings is described as Entomoneis calixasini Paillès, Blanc-Valleron & Poulin sp. nov. This species was found at numerous levels within a 4.6-m-long core recovered from the north-western slope of the Central High of the Marmara Sea, Turkey. Detailed light and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize this species. Entomoneis calixasini is unique by a wing resembling interconnecting dunces’ caps. This species, sometimes the most abundant, is present between 44 and 395 cm of MET09-GR02 core sediments, corresponding to the Pleistocene last glacial period (brackish lacustrine sediments). It was not observed in the marine sediments above, or in other core sediments from the Marmara Sea or elsewhere in Pleistocene or Holocene sequences. It is absent in modern collections and from the literature, and is considered extinct.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences

Christine Paillès, Marie-Madeleine Blanc-Valleron, Michel Poulin, Antoine Crémière, Omar Boudouma, et al.. Entomoneis calixasini sp nov., a new fossil diatom from the Turkish Marmara Sea sediments. Diatom Research, 2014, 29 (4), pp.411-422. ⟨10.1080/0269249X.2014.921645⟩. ⟨hal-01403044⟩