New Carboniferous (Namurian) glaciomarine ostracods from Patagonia, Argentina

A new ostracod fauna (eight species belonging to five genera) from the lower part of the Levipustula levis Zone of the Pampa de Tepuel Formation, Patagonia is described. It consists of two new species (Aurikirkbya tepuelensis sp.nov., Graphiadactylloides patagoniensis sp.nov.) and six species described informally (Graphiadactylloides sp. aff. G. moreyi Green, G. sp., Mauryella sp., Roundyella ? sp. and Scrobicula sp.), including one eridostracan (Cryptophyllus sp.). The assemblage probably lived in a large embayment, in the outer sublittoral (circalittoral) depth biofacies of the continental shelf, on a muddy substrate, within an extraglacial marine facies. Its age is consistent with the currently accepted Early (not earliest) Namurian age for this level.