The Bet-Meir Formation is a Late Cretaceous sedimentary unit exposed in the central highlands of the West Bank (Palestine). It belongs to the regional Judea Group and records sedimentation on a broad, shallow marine carbonate platform along the southern margin of the Tethys Ocean during the Early Cenomanian.
The formation is paleontologically significant. Vertebrate remains recovered from it include pterosaurs, several species of ray-finned fish, and early snakes. Many important specimens come from quarries near Ein Yabrud, north and east of Ramallah, where fossil-bearing beds occur close to the contact with the Amminadav Formation. Owing to the close stratigraphic relationship between the two units, it remains uncertain whether some of the vertebrate fossils should be assigned to the Bet-Meir Formation or to the overlying formation.
Description
The formation represents a warm, tropical carbonate platform interior, positioned between fully open marine shelf environments and more continental marginal settings, being composed mainly of dolostone that accumulated in tidal-flat and restricted lagoonal settings. The area was under a greenhouse-climate shallow sea. The absence of relatively complete or articulated terrestrial plants suggests that the locality was either far from the nearest landfall or very arid. A good modern analogue is the Laguna Bacalar in Yucatán, as both settings share being a restricted circulation setting with abundant mud sitting on a carbonate platform.
In many areas, these dolostones laterally replace the chalks and limestones assigned to the En Yorqeam Formation, reflecting local environmental differences across the platform. The succession includes fine-grained dolomitic mudstones and siltstones, thin marly layers, laminated algal deposits, and occasional intraformational conglomerates. Features such as iron staining, erosion surfaces, and karstic cavities indicate periodic exposure of the sea floor during temporary drops in sea level. Much of the dolomitization is interpreted as secondary, linked to marine fluids circulating through the sediments during subsequent transgressive phases.
Stratigraphically, the Bet-Meir Formation rests on the Kesalon Formation, whose uppermost beds frequently show signs of erosion and hardground development. It is overlain by the slightly younger Amminadav Formation, characterized by more open-marine carbonate sedimentation and Rudist-bearing limestones. Because the transition between these two formations can be gradual and locally intertonguing, distinguishing their fossil content is sometimes problematic.
Paleobiota The majority of species here cannot be confidently assigned the Bet-Meir Formation, and some may instead belong to the younger Amminadav Formation.
Invertebrates Unnamed material of Decapodans, Echinoids, Starfish, Cephalopods and Bivalvia are seen along the outcrops. GenusSpeciesPresenceNotesImagesGraysonitesG. wacoenseEin Yabrud quarriesAcanthoceratidae ammoniteStoliczkaiellaS. amanaiEin Yabrud quarriesAcanthoceratidae ammonite
Chondrichthyes GenusSpeciesPresenceNotesImagesBatoideaIndeterminateEin Yabrud quarriesRay
Bony Fish GenusSpeciesPresenceNotesImagesAipichthyoidesA. galeatusEin Yabrud quarriesAn aipichthyoidid lamprimorphA. formosusDercetoidesD. venatorEin Yabrud quarriesA dercetid aulopiformEnchodusE. brevisEin Yabrud quarriesAn enchodontid aulopiformHastichthys H. gracilisEin Yabrud quarriesA dercetid aulopiformJudeichthysJ. haasiEin Yabrud quarriesA gonorynchidJudeoberyxJ. princepsEin Yabrud quarriesA trachichthyoid trachichthyformPachyamiaP. latimaxillarisEin Yabrud quarriesAn amiidPharmacichthysP. judensisEin Yabrud quarriesA pharmacichthyid lamprimorphRamallichthysR. orientalisEin Yabrud quarriesA gonorynchidRhombichthys R. intoccabilisEin Yabrud quarriesA paraclupeid clupeomorphSaurorhamphusS. judeaensisEin Yabrud quarriesA eurypholid aulopiformScalacurvichthysS. naishiEin Yabrud quarriesA pycnodontidSerrilepisS. longidensEin Yabrud quarriesA halecid aulopiformYabrudichthysY. striatusEin Yabrud quarriesAn enchodontoid aulopiform
Turtles GenusSpeciesPresenceNotesImagesAlgorachelusA. parvaEin Yabrud quarriesA bothremyid side-necked turtlePelomedusidaeindet.Ein Yabrud quarriesAn indeterminate pelomedusid side-necked turtle
Squamates GenusSpeciesPresenceNotesImagesHaasiasaurusH. gittelmaniEin Yabrud quarriesAn early mosasaurHaasiophisH. terrasanctusEin Yabrud quarriesA simoliophiid snake, notable for its hindlimbsMesoleptosM. zendriniiEin Yabrud quarriesA basal mosasauroidPachyrhachisP. problematicusEin Yabrud quarriesA simoliophiid snake, notable for its hindlimbs
Pterosaurs GenusSpeciesPresenceNotesImagesPterodactyloideaindet.Ein Yabrud quarriesAn indeterminate pterosaur
Flora The dominant component of the flora are encrusting green algae, while terrestrial flora is composed almost exclusively by leaves and stalks or stems of a mangrove gymnosperm (very likely Weichselia based on regional abundance).
See also
List of pterosaur-bearing stratigraphic units
References