The Drawbacks of Working in the Golan Heights
Mark Wilson May 26th, 2009
Today we could visit only one Jurassic site in the Golan. The others were in a militarily sensitive area to which we were not admitted, even after a long conversation with the commanding officer and classic geological special pleading. (“But our American guest, a famous geologist, has come thousands of miles just for these important rocks!”)
So, the fossil of the day will be a Jurassic belemnite from the top bed of the Zohar Formation. These are among the simplest of fossils (basically a calcite dart) but they are remnants of sophisticated cephalopods which are relatives of the modern squid. The fossil belemnite “guard” acted as a stiffening and weighting device inside the soft body.
Belemnite from the Jurassic Zohar Formation near Neve Atif, The Golan. Note sliver of coin on the right for scale.