Jurassic Ostracode Fauna from the Type Section of Khadir formation, Kachchh and Lophocythere vertipolycostata n. sp.

The paper records for the first time the occurrence of a rich and interesting ostracode fauna from the type section of Khadir Formation, Khadir Island, Rann of Kachchh, Gujarat. The fauna comprises 54 species of which 30 are assigned to the previously known taxa and all these are illustrated herein. Twenty-three species are left under open nomenclature and one species, Luphocythere vertipolycostata, is described as new. Besides Khadir Island, the latter species also occurs in the Khadir Formation of Bela Island and the Fort Member of Jaisalmer Formation, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. On the basis of these ostracodes, a middle-upper Bathonian to upper Callovian age is proposed for the Khadir Formation.