Ostracods, brachiopods (

Peregrinella-lenses within Lower Cretaceous deep-sea deposits have puzzled geologists and palaeontologists since their first observation in the 19th century, until the discovery of present-day cold seeps allowed their attribution to the circulation of seep type fluids. The Vocontian Basin, a sub-basin of the Tethys Ocean, is an important area where several sites bearing Peregrinella-lenses have been reported and studied by generations of scientists. Here we investigate material from the site of Curnier (Drôme), of early Hauterivian age, stored in the collections of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris. We illustrate and describe the macro-invertebrate community (brachiopods, lucinid bivalves and abyssochrysoid gastropods) as well as the first known ostracods and scolecodonts from Peregrinella-lenses. The brachiopod specimens are adults and juveniles of Peregrinella (Peregrinella) multicarinata, many bearing sublethal predation marks probably from decapod crustacean attacks. Their variable costulation ranging from thin to coarse may relate to ontogeny but future works should focus on how fluids may also have influenced their morphology. Ostracods and scolecodonts were extracted from sediment infilling four poorly preserved Peregrinella specimens. The ostracod population is poor but illustrates nine species distributed into eight genera and six families, including the newly described Nekrocypris sepultinconcha Forel gen. nov. sp. nov. and Eucytherura (Vesticytherura) captinconcha Forel sp. nov. It corresponds to a rather natural low-abundance population composed of deposit-feeders, which were likely part of the Curnier chemosynthetic community and washed into the brachiopod shells after their death. The ostracod community is largely composed of Pontocyprididae, in a pattern similar to that of the older Oxfordian seep site of Sahune but differences between the sites may relate to geodynamic, geochemical or palaeoecological contexts. Overall, the ostracod community indicates that the Curnier seepage occurred under bathyal water depth. Though only two scolecodonts were found, they formally establish the presence of polychaete annelids around the Curnier seep. These jaws belong to representatives of the Hartmaniellidae, a still enigmatic family, which may have been predators on meiofauna.