Holothurians from the Late Cretaceous 'Fish shales' of

Echinoderms: Milnchen - Heinzeller & Nebelsick (eds) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1536 481 7

Holothurians from the Late Cretaceous 'Fish shales' of Lebanon* M. Reich Geowissenschajiliches Zentrum der Uni versitiit Gottingen. Abt. Geobiologie, Gottingen. Germany

ABSTRACT: The Late Cretaceous Fossil Lagersti:itte HjoGia, northern Lebano n, contain exceptionally preserved body foss ils of Holothuroidea. Almost all presented spec imens can be assi gned to aspidoc hirote shall ow-water holothurians of the fa mily Holothuriidae.

INTRODUCTI ON AND STRATIG RAPHY Loca li ties yielding nearly complete fossil holothuri ans are very rare in the world. Prev iously, less than I 0 such localities (Foss il Lagersti:itten) have been reported in the literature; two of th ese are C retaceo us in age ( 144-65 Ma old): ( I) th e Albian lithog raphic limestones of the Tlayua Formation atTepex i de Rodriguez, Puebla, Mex ico (Applegate et al. 1996, Buitr6nSl'mchez 199 1, Buitr6n-Sanchez & Malpi ca-Cruz 1987 , Martill 1989), and (2) the 'Fish shales' of Lebanon (Hiickel 1970). The lithographi c limestones of the Lebanon comprise Upper Cretaceous Fossil-Lagersti:itten of different ages and fauna! compos ition. They have been renowned fo r a ri ch fi sh fa una since the Middle Ages (Fraas 1878, Roger 1946). A Cenomani an age (cf. Fig. I) is assigned to the Hiiqel (= Hake!) and Hj oula ( = Hj oul a, Hajula, Hadjoula) localities (Hiickel 1970) as well as to the Nammoura loca lity (Dalla Vecc hi a et al. 200 I), whereas the beds at Siihel A lma ( = Sahel A lma) are dated as Late Santo ni an (Ej el & Dubertret 1966). The limestones of Hj o ul a were de posited in small, restri cted basins within an area of thi ck Cretaceous shelf sediments with rudists and orbitolinids indicating warm , shall ow water. The ' Fish shales ' are accompanied by synsedimentary slumping.

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Cenomanian and Turonian

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Figure I . Geo logica l map of Lebanon, showing the stud ied loca lity Hj ou la (after Hlickel 1970, mod if ied).

A ll specimens consist of mo re ore less well preserved cal careous ring (Figs 2 and 3; di ameter 0.5-4.0 cm), sometimes the body outline and questi onably the intestines. Nearly all specimens can be ass igned to the Aspidochirotida: Holothuriidae; one specimen also probably to the ?Sti chopodidae. The results of additional mi cropalaeonto logical investi gations are meagre with o nly a few poorly preserved ossic les (Th eelia) indicating apodid sea cucumbers (Chiridotidae ).

MAT ERI A LS AN D RE SU LTS

The Hj oGia locality (Fig. 1), from whi ch the materi al ori ginates, is located about I 0 km inland from Jbail (Byblos). The Hj oul a locali ty has yielded nea rly 50 specimens and fragments of complete foss il holothurian s.

' Submitted as an extended abstract

4 87

The figured material is housed in the collections of 'Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum' at Gi:ittingen University (GZG), Germany.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank H. Miischker (Rostock) for the supply of the excellent preserved holothurian material as well as 1. Ga llemi (Barcelona), 1. Lehmann (Bremen), A. Liebau, and V Moosbrugger, 1. Nebelsick (all three Tiibingen) for numerous comments and/or loan of material.

Figure 2. Gen. et sp. nov. (Aspidochirotida: Holothuriidae), anteri or part of a specimen with preserved ca lcareous ring (er) and body outline (b) ' Fish shale' (early Late Cenomanian), HjoCtla, Lebanon (coli. Reich , GZG).

REFERENCES Applegate, S. P , Buitr6n-Sanchez, B.E. & Soli s-Marin, F.A. 1996. Seven new taxa of holothurians (Holothuroidea, Ech inodermata) from the Lower Cretaceous (Aibian) Tlayua Quarries, near Tepexi de Rodriguez, Puebla, Mexico. In J. Repetski (ed.), Sixth North American paleontologica l convention: abstracts of papers. The Paleontological Society, Special Publication 8: p. 10. Buitr6n-Sanchez, B. E. 1991. Los Equinodermos del Cretac ico Temprano. Spectra. !nformaci6n cientifica y tecn6/ogica 13( 179- 180)[Agosto-Septiembre]: 15- 18. Buitr6n-Sanchez, B.E. Malpica-Cruz, R. 1987. Tepexi de Rodriguez, Puebla, una localidad fos ilifera famosa de Mexico. Libreto Guia de la Excursion, Sociedad Mexicana de Paleontologia, A.C., I Congreso Nacional de Paleontologia, Mexico, 19- 20 de Noviembre de 1987: 1-23. Dalla Vecchia, F.M., Arduini , P. & Kellner, A.W.A. 2001. The first pterosaur from the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) Lagerstiitten of Lebanon . Cretaceous Research 22: 2 19- 225. Ejel, F. & Dubertret, L. 1966. Sur l'iige de Sahel Alma. Compte rendu sommaire des seances de la Societe geologique de France 1996(9): p. 353. Fraas, 0. 1878. Geologisches a us dem Libanon. Jahreshefte des Vereins fiir vaterliindische Naturkunde in Wiirttemberg 34: 257- 39 1. Hiickel, U. 1970. Die Fischschiefer von Haqel und Hjoula in der Oberkreide des Libanon. In Fossii-Lagerstiitten, Nr. 7. Neues Jahrbuch fiir Geologie und Paliiontologie, Abhandlungen 135(2): 11 3- 149. Martill , D. M. 1989. A new 'So lenhofen' in Mexico. Geology Today 5( 1) : 25- 28. Roger, J. 1946. Les invertebres des couches a poissons du Cretace superieur du Liban. Memoires de la Societe geologique de France (nouvelle serie) 23( 1- 2): 92 pp. [Memoir 5 1] .

Figure 3. Gen. et sp. nov. (Aspidochirotida: Holothuriidae), whole specimen with preserved calcareous ring (er), body outline (b) and possible intestinum (in) - 'Fish sha le' (early Late Cenomanian), HjoCtla, Lebanon (coli. Reich, GZG).

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11th INTERNATIONAL ECHINODERM CONFERENCE, MUNICH , GERMANY, 6-10 OCTOBER 2003

Echinoderrns: Miinchen Edited by

T. Heinzeller Anatomische Anstalt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Miinch en, Miin chen, Germany

J.H. Nebelsick Institut fiir Geowissenschaften, Universitat Tiibingen, Tiibingen, Germany

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