Paleontology in Lebanon
In his Histoire de Saint Louis he wrote that during the sojourn of King Louis IX of France at Sidon in 1253, just before his return home from the Seventh Crusade, a stone was brought him, which was the most marvellous in the world, for when a layer of it was lifted, there was found between the two pieces the form of a fish.
[1] There are three major fossil locations in Lebanon: Sahel Alma, Hajula and Hakel (the latter two being part of the Sannine Formation).
Hajula is situated six miles south of Hakel; and between the two villages there are two westward-projecting spurs of Mount Lebanon and an intervening valley.
These data make it quite certain that the beds at Sahel Alma are on a different level from those at Hakel and Hajula; while those at the latter places are on the same, or nearly the same, horizon.
[5] The landscape of Lebanon has been subject to volcanic eruptions, tectonic plate movement, and the rising and dropping of sea levels.
Dirk Fuchs of the Freie University Berlin said about these 95-million-year-old fossil octopuses found in Lebanon: This provides important evolutionary information.
A micropterigid moth Palibacus praecursor (Dames, 1886) Cenomanian Hakel Scyllaridae A slipper lobster Pontosaurus kornhuberi Caldwell, 2006 Upper Cretaceous Dolichosauridae A dolichosaurid lizard Pronotacanthus sahelalmae (Davis, 1887) Santonian Notacanthidae a spiny eel Rhinochelys nammourensis Tong, Hirayama, Makhoul and Escuillie, 2006 Cenomanian Nammoûra Protostegidae A protostegid sea turtle Scapanorhynchus lewisii (Davis, 1887) Santonian Sahel Alma Mitsukurinidae A goblin shark Sorbinichthys elusivo Bannikov & Bacchia, 2000 Cenomanian Nammoûra Sorbinichthyidae A clupeiform fish Styletoctopus annae Fuchs, Bracchi & Weis, 2009 Cenomanian Hjoula Palaeoctopodidae A stem-group octopus Tragichrysa ovoruptora Pérez-de la Fuente et al., 2018 Barremian Lebanese amber Chrysopoidea chrysopoid lacewing neonates of uncertain placement Trewavasia carinata (Davis, 1887) Cenomanian Hekel Coccodontidae A pycnodontiform fish Tyruschrysa melqart Pérez-de la Fuente et al., 2018 Barremian Lebanese amber Chrysopoidea chrysopoid lacewing larva of uncertain placement
