Ostracoda

Ostracoda [ä′sträk·ə·də]

(invertebrate zoology)

A subclass of the class Crustacea containing small, bivalved aquatic forms; the body is unsegmented and there is no true abdominal region.

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Ostracoda 

a subclass of invertebrates of the class Crustacea. The body, which measures from 0.2 to 23 mm long, is enclosed in a calcareous bivalve carapace. The head is indistinct from the trunk, which bears three pairs of limbs and terminates in a biramous furca. Most ostracods have one simple eye, but some have compound eyes. There are about 2,000 species, distributed in seas and freshwaters. The majority of ostracods are benthic. They serve as food for some commercial fishes. Fossil ostracods, which have been found in Cambrian deposits, are of major significance in stratigraphy and are the most important guide fossils used in locating petroleum and gas deposits.

REFERENCES

Bronshtein, Z. S. Ostracodapresnykhvod. Moscow-Leningrad, 1947.
Zhizn’ zhivotnykh, vol. 2. Moscow, 1968.