The genus Perissocytheridea Stephenson, 1938 (Crustacea: Ostracoda) and evidence of brackish water facies along the Oligo-Miocene, Pirabas Formation, eastern Amazonia, Brazil

• New paleontological and taxonomic data of Cenozoic deposits exposed along of Northeastern Amazonia, Brazil.
• Species of Perissocytheridea were recorded for the first time during the Oligo-Miocene in the Pirabas Formation.
• This genus is typical of brackish water environments and significant to paleoenvironmental interpretation.
• The co-occurrence of the benthic foraminifera with Perissocytheridea-Haplocytheridea-Cytheridea association supports this significant mixohaline influence.
• The recurrence of this ostracoda association in the Pirabas succession open a new way to try understanding phases of lower salinity in the lagoon and negative sea level oscillations.

Perissocytheridea Stephenson is characteristic of brackish water facies. In 57 samples from the Upper Oligocene to Lower Miocene, from five localities, Pirabas Formation, Pará State, Brazil eleven species have been identified. Among these species, four are new reports: Perissocytheridea punctoreticulata n. sp., Perissocytheridea largulateralis n. sp., Perissocytheridea colini n. sp. and Perissocytheridea pirabensis n. sp.; five species in open nomenclature: Perissocytheridea sp. 1, P. sp. 2, P. sp. 3, P. sp. 4, and P. sp. 5 and two species left in “aff.” abbreviation: Perissocytheridea aff. Perissocytheridea pumila and Perissocytheridea aff. Perissocytheridea brachyforma subsp. excavata. The distributional pattern of the Perissocytheridea combined with the occurrence of foraminifera Elphidium and Ammonia in the studied sections supports the presence of the brackish water facies to the respective layers. Their quantitative variation through the studied sections indicate more than one phase of salinity reduction (about >5 and <30 ppm) and/or the decrease of the sea level, forming lagoon along the Pirabas Formation. This genus has a wide paleobiogeographical occurrence and stratigraphic distribution ranging from the Cretaceous to Recent, and already been recorded in the northern of South America, especially in the Neogene of Solimões Basin, but this is the first report of a neotropical genus to the Oligo-Miocene deposits of Pirabas Formation, northern Brazilian Coast, Pará State.

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