[1] Although Lebanon is now a part of Asia, the depositional environment for both formations would have been located off the coast of northern Africa during the Cretaceous, which would technically make their biota African rather than Asian.

The neritic nature of these habitats contrasts with the other major marine lagerstätte of the region, Sahel Aalma, which is thought to have been deposited in a deepwater continental slope environment.

[13] An incredible diversity of fossil pycnodonts of various, highly unusual body plans is known, in addition to the earliest representatives of modern fish groups such as acanthomorphs, African butterflyfish and eels.

Around 1250, fossil fishes were presented to Louis IX during the Seventh Crusade and documented by Jean de Joinville, although it remains uncertain whether these originated from Haqel or the younger Sahel Alma site.

Lady Hester Stanhope collected and circulated fossil fishes from Haqel and Sahel Alma during the early 19th century, contributing to the study of these specimens by scientists such as Louis Agassiz.