Preliminary report on a dinosaur tracksite from Lower Cretaceous strata in Mount Lebanon
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Preliminary report on a dinosaur tracksite from Lower Cretaceous strata in Mount Lebanon Raymond Gèze 1 & Isabelle Veltz 2 & Jean-Claude Paicheler 2 & Bruno Granier 3,4 & Roland Habchi 5 & Dany Azar 1,6 & Sibelle Maksoud 1,6
Received: 4 April 2016 / Accepted: 15 November 2016 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2016
Abstract A dinosaur tracksite was discovered in Batha on the side of the road from Harissa to Ghosta (Keserwan, Lebanon). About ten trackways are exposed at the top of two beds of Lower Cretaceous limestones over an area of approximately 1000 m2. These footprints were probably made by at least two dinosaur species, Sauropoda and either Theropoda or Ornithopoda. The site, which is the first record from Lebanon, should be protected to allow further scientific investigations.
Keywords Dinosaurs . Lebanon . Lower Cretaceous . Jezzinian . Tracks . Footprints . Ichnites
Introduction Records of dinosaur remains are rather rare in the Middle East (see Buffetaut et al. 2006, for review). The dinosaur tracksite presented here was first identified by one of our team member (R. Gèze) in 2013. The site is located in Batha, Central Lebanon (Fig. 1). These footprints ichnites are exposed at the top of Lower Cretaceous limestones on structural surfaces dipping at high angle (~70°) westward. The aim of this preliminary report is to highlight the scientific value of the site for its conservation and for further investigation.
Jean-Claude Paicheler died before publication of this work was completed Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12517-016-2759-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Bruno Granier [email protected]; [email protected] Raymond Gèze [email protected] Isabelle Veltz [email protected] Dany Azar [email protected]
2
Laboratoire des Sciences de la Terre et de l’Environnement, bât. B – 165, L.T.G. F. Roosevelt, 10 rue Roosevelt, 51100 Reims, France
3
Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l’Univers, UFR Sciences et Techniques, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, 6 avenue Le Gorgeu, CS 93837, F-29238 Brest, France
4
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Kansas, 1200 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
5
Research Platform for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies, Lebanese University, Campus Pierre Gemayel, Fanar 90656, Lebanon
6
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, People’s Republic of China
Sibelle Maksoud [email protected] 1
Faculty of Sciences II, Earth and Life Sciences Department, Lebanese University, PO box 26110217, Fanar – Matn, Lebanon
Arab J Geosci (2016) 9:730
Page 2 of 8
Fig. 1 Location map
N W
E
ME DI T ER RA NE AN
S
SE A
730
Mount-Lebanon Batha
Beirut
LEBANON SYRIA Damascus
50 km
Geographical and geological setting
Material and method
The tracksite is located in Batha on the side of the road from Harissa to Ghosta, Keserwan District, Mount Lebanon Governorate (33°59′11.53
