Wadi el Malih (Cretaceous of Israel)

Also known as Shomron

Where: Israel (32.5° N, 34.9° E: paleocoordinates 9.5° N, 30.9° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Tayasir Formation, Berriasian (145.0 - 139.8 Ma)

• "Subunit 15, Tuff Member; 44-45 m above base of Tayasir Volcanics"

•specimens are "unequally distributed throughout the 1.5-m laminated shale layer"

•formation is "Hauterivian or Barremian" and specimens are from the lower part of the formation and therefore "may be Hauterivian"

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: pond; lithified, gypsiferous shale and tuff

• "relatively shallow freshwater pools from which time to time received tuffaceous material from volcanic eruptions
• there is "fine interbedding of tuff and shale" and specimens are from the latter; "gypsum and halite" are present in the shales

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression, soft parts, replaced with limonite, replaced with carbon

Collection methods: specimens are in the Museum of the Department of Zoology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Primary reference: R. Estes, Z. V. Spinar, and E. Nevo. 1978. Early Cretaceous pipid tadpoles from Israel (Amphibia: Anura). Herpetologica 34(4):374-393 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 84472: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 24.10.2008, edited by Jered Karr

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

unclassified
  -
Plantae indet. Haeckel 1866
"plant" remains
Insecta
 Blattodea - Mesoblattinidae
Gondwablatta abrahami n. gen. n. sp.2
Gondwablatta abrahami n. gen. n. sp.2 Vršanský 2004 cockroach
HU 38336
 Coleoptera - Hydrophilidae
Cretosperchus medievalis n. gen. n. sp.1
Cretosperchus medievalis n. gen. n. sp.1 Ponomarenko 1997 water scavenger beetle
HU 38335
 Dicondylia -
Odonata indet.1 Fabricius 1793 dragonfly
Nymph
Deuteropoda
  -
Ostracoda indet. Latreille 1802 ostracod
"ostracod" remains
Amphibia
 Salientia - Pipidae
Shomronella jordanica n. gen. n. sp.
Shomronella jordanica n. gen. n. sp. Estes et al. 1978 clawed frog
Actinopteri
 Teleostei - Orthogonikleithridae
aff. Leptolepides sp. Nybelin 1974
"tiny fossil fishes (near Leptolepides)"