BrasCretOst II

The so-called “Pre-Salt” successions comprise a series of geological formations having formed in ancient long-term lakes during Early Cretaceous times between eastern South America and West Africa due to the early successive breakup of Gondwanaland (between ca. 143–115 millions of years ago). Today, they comprise a significant proportion of the world’s hydrocarbon reserves and are of economic interest for South American countries such as Brazil. Ostracods are mainly aquatic microcrustacean, typically around 1 mm in size, with a calcified bivalved shell, the carapace, that today inhabit virtually all aquatic environments, both marine and non-marine. In sedimentary rocks of the Pre-Salt interval, fossil ostracods are very common and among the most useful group for biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental application. These applications are of major interest for hydrocarbon exploration, i.e., to reduce costs by supporting risk assessment during the drilling of exploration wells. Since any application of organisms can only be as good as the taxonomy (classification) it is based on project BrasCretOst II approaches further essential aspects towards the better utility of the ostracods as based on up-to-date taxonomy: The management as well as the efficient communication and utilization of available data in a practical and modern way – without neglecting high scientific standards. Within this project, a modern graphic database will be developed that is intended to be used as interactive visual identification tool for the respective ostracods (VITO), i.e., not only to be an online reference for specialists but to actively support users of different qualification levels in taxon identification. The ultimate goal of project BrasCretOst II is to facilitate A) an optimization of the application of these ostracods in exploration as well as B) the optimization in both quality of the respective ostracod’s taxonomy and scientific further education in the field of ostracod taxonomy and application.