Ostracodes from Ocean Drilling Program Leg 151, Sites 910 and 911, were studied to provide biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic data on Pliocene and Quaternary sediments from the Yermak Plateau, Arctic Ocean. Preliminary results indicate the Yermak Plateau was inhabited by relatively thermophilic taxa (?Hermanities, Muellerina, Pterygocythereis) during the Pliocene and progressively more cryophilic taxa (Cytheropteron, Elofsonella, Heterocyprideis) during the Quaternary. Ostracode assemblages provide evidence that warm Atlantic water entered the Yermak Plateau region of the Arctic during the Pliocene, allowing temperate species to inhabit water depths of ~500-1000 m, and that oceanographic conditions varied during the Quaternary but were generally cooler than during the Pliocene.

Date of initial receipt: 5 July 1995
Date of acceptance: 5 December 1995

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