17 INTRODUCTION Although the very first anostracan species ever men- tioned for Turkey was Chirocephalus tauricus, de- scribed by Pesta in 1921 from an unknown locality in Taurus Mountains, subsequent documentation on Anostraca in this country has been fragmentary in the past and mostly relied upon old records dating back to the 1970s (Cottarelli, 1971; Cottarelli & Mu- ra, 1974). Between 1963 and 1970, the temporary wa- ters of Asiatic Turkey were surveyed within the frame of a project of faunistic campaigns in the Near East promoted by the former Zoological Institute of La Sapienza University (Rome). Since then, no system- atic investigations have been performed and consid- erable gaps still exist, mainly due to lack of experts on Anostraca and possibly of adequate funding. During the 1990s field investigations were pro- moted again in order to gather information about the presence of this crustacean order in Turkey (Balik & Ustaoglu, 1993; Uçal & Ergen, 1994; Bas ¸ bug ˘ & De- mirkalp, 1997; Beladjal & Mertens, 1997; Kazancı et al., 1998; Bas ¸ bug ˘ , 1999a, b). Recently, the presence of at least five species new to science (Brtek & Cottarelli, 2006; Cottarelli et al., 2007, 2010) has been documented for the Anatolian altiplano, thus enhancing knowledge on the distribu- tion and species richness of Anostraca in Turkey (Mu- ra et al., 2005a; Ustaog ˘ lu et al., 2005). The present contribution is part of a joint effort to fill the existing gaps while stressing the need for further investigating the biodiversity of Turkish temporary waters, often New data on the taxonomy and distribution of anostracan fauna from Turkey Graziella MURA 1* , Sulhi R. ÖZKÜTÜK 2 , Cem AYGEN 3 and Vezio COTTARELLI 4 1 Department of Animal and Human Biology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Viale dell’Università 32, 00185 Rome, Italy 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Anadolu University, TR-26470, Eskisehir, Turkey 3 Department of Marine-Inland Water Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Fisheries, Ege University, Bornova, TR-35100, Izmir, Turkey 4 Department of Environmental Sciences, “della Tuscia” University, Largo dell’Università, 01100 Viterbo, Italy Received: 15 June 2010 Accepted after revision: 22 September 2010 Until recently, current knowledge on the distribution of anostracan fauna in Turkey has been rather limited and mostly relied upon old records dating back to the 1970s. Field investigations initiated during the last few years have revealed the presence of at least five species new to sci- ence and have contributed new data on the distribution and status of anostracans in Turkey. Ten Chirocephalus species are currently listed for Turkey, belonging to the “diaphanus” and “bairdi” groups, respectively. Representatives of other genera include Branchinecta ferox Milne-Edwards, 1840 and Branchinecta orientalis Sars, 1901 (Branchinectidae), Branchinella spinosa Milne-Ed- wards, 1840 (Thamnocephalidae) and Branchipus laevicornis Daday, 1912 (Branchipodidae). In- terestingly, the latter has been found to coexist with Branchinecta orientalis, a case never recorded previously. Some old references also list Branchinectella media Schmankewitsch, 1873, Chiroce- phalus reiseri Marcus, 1913, and Streptocephalus auritus Koch, 1841, but these data need to be verified. Key words: Anostraca, taxonomy, distribution, Turkey. * Corresponding author: e-mail: graziella.mura@uniro- ma1.it Journal of Biological Research-Thessaloniki 15: 17 – 23, 2011 J. Biol. Res.-Thessalon. is available online at http://www.jbr.gr Indexed in: WoS (Web of Science, ISI Thomson), SCOPUS, CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)