﻿Ilyocypris leptolinea Wang & Zhai, sp. nov., an ostracod (Ostracoda, Crustacea) from the late Quaternary of Inner Mongolia, northern China

Ilyocypris leptolinea Wang & Zhai, sp. nov. is described from late Quaternary sediments in central-eastern Inner Mongolia, northern China. The new species, which has a carapace shape and pitted surface typical of the genus, is characterised by double rows of fine, densely arranged marginal ripplets, separated by an inner list, along both anterior and posterior calcified inner lamellae in the left valve. Outline analysis and Principal Component Analysis indicate that its morpho-space overlaps with I. bradyi Sars, 1890, I. japonica Okubo, 1990, and I. mongolica Martens, 1991, which have living or fossil representatives in Inner Mongolia, but it is clearly discriminated from I. innermongolica Zhai & Xiao, 2013. Judging from the relatively coarse lithology dominated by silt and sand, and the lack of accompanying brackish-water ostracods, I. leptolinea Wang & Zhai, sp. nov. may have lived in a relatively shallow freshwater lake. It perhaps can be added to the list of species that went extinct during the Quaternary, but the timing and process of extinction await further investigation.