New marine ostracod species from the Middle Eocene of west-central Sinai, Egypt

• Investigation of the Eocene succession at Wadi Nukhul and Wadi Tayiba in west-central Sinai region for ostracods yielded diverse fauna, mostly recovered from the Middle-Upper Eocene interval.
• Most of the recorded species are already known from several previous studies on different regions in Egypt and neighbouring north African and Middle East areas.
• Among the recorded taxa, the fauna assigned to eight species are newly described and compared with the nearest or probably related taxa.
• The newly erected taxa belong to the families Krithidae, Cytheruridae, Trachyleberididae and Xestoleberididae.
• They have been retrieved from the early Middle Eocene (Lutetian) late Middle Eocene (Bartonian) intervals.

The study of two Eocene sections exposed at Wadi Nukhul and Wadi Tayiba in west-central Sinai, Egypt for ostracods yielded diverse fauna. Investigation of the recorded taxa revealed findings of eight new marine ostracod species, one belonging to the family Krithidae, Parakrithe tayibaensis n. sp., three to the family Cytheruridae, Cytheropteron bicostsatum n. sp., Cytheropteron nukhulensis n. sp. and Cytheropteron speijeri n. sp., three to the family Trachyleberididae: Digmocythere centroreticulata n. sp. in subfamily Brachycytherinae and Buntonia bassiounii n. sp. and Buntonia posteroacuta n. sp. in subfamily Buntoniinae, and one, Xestoleberis posterotruncata n. sp., to the family Xestoleberididae. The newly erected species have been described and compared with nearest known and probably related taxa. Their records in the studied sections are stratigraphically confined to the Middle Eocene (Lutetian-Bartonian) interval.