A comparative study of lacustrine ostracods and mollusks of the Dinarides and Serbian Lake Systems

Intramontane basins serve as exceptional archives of long-term climate, depositional and environmental changes. Additionally, these basins are biodiversity hotspots, harboring freshwater lacustrine fauna, making them invaluable for studying the interplay between paleoenvironmental dynamics and evolutionary processes.

During Miocene, a multitude of intramontane basins emerged within the Dinarides mountain range. The basins were filled with a series of long-lived lakes, hosting endemic lacustrine fauna significant for understanding Neogene paleoenvironments and paleogeography. Two freshwater systems, representing distinct paleobiogeographic entities, occupied areas corresponding to present-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dinarides Lake System, DLS) and Serbia, Kosovo, and North Macedonia (Serbian Lake System, SLS). Faunal samples were collected from various localities within the DLS and a single locality in the SLS. Within the DLS, key sites include the Kupres, Livno, and Tomislavgrad basins in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereas the samples retrieved from the SLS belong to the Valjevo-Mionica Basin in western Serbia.

This research aims to comprehensively revise and provide detailed taxonomic descriptions of the freshwater benthic assemblages from both the DLS and SLS. Comparative analysis of ostracod and mollusk compositions has been used to investigate evolutionary connections between species in these intramontane lacustrine systems. The ostracod fauna is of particular interest due to the absence of in-depth descriptions and detailed figures. In contrast, mollusk assemblages have been thoroughly revised and described in previous publications. Correlation within the DLS is based on ostracod and mollusk samples from the Table section (Livno Basin), the Kongora section (Tomislavgrad Basin), and the Fatelj section (Kupres Basin). A taxonomic analysis was conducted using samples from the Ribnica section of the Valjevo-Mionica Basin to compare this fauna with that of the SLS.

The future direction of this research involves expanding comparative taxonomic analyses with other Neogene long-lived lakes, aiming to provide deeper insights into evolutionary patterns and further our understanding of faunal developments.