Ain Zhalta: A new early Barremian fossiliferous amber outcrops from central Lebanon

Abstract

Lebanon has an extraordinarily high proportion of Mesozoic amber outcrops, some (19 outcrops) from the Kimmeridgian, Upper Jurassic (Azar et al., 2010b; Nohra et al., 2013; Maksoud & Azar, 2020); and others (more than 450 outcrops) from the lower Barremian (Granier et al., 2016; Maksoud et al., 2017; Maksoud et al., 2022), Lower Cretaceous (Maksoud & Azar, 2020). The latter number is still endlessly growing (for a very small country with a total surface of 10,452 km2). To date 28 outcrops yielding biological inclusions are known (Maksoud et al., 2019, 2020, 2021a, b, c; Maksoud & Azar, 2022).