Lebanon is renowned for its rich Cenomanian fossil deposits, but recently its Lower Cretaceous deposits have also yielded significant fossils of plants, vertebrates and arthropods. In particular, the Barremian dysodiles (oil-shale mudstone) of Jdeidet Bkassine (Jezzine District, South Lebanon) are revealing vertebrate fossils of exceptional preservation. Until 2021, several surveys led to the discovery of ray-finned fishes, turtles and two complete mawsoniid coelacanths. In light of these promising finds, a two-week excavation was organised in 2023, supported by a National Geographic Society grant and involving an international team from Belgium, France, Lebanon, and Switzerland. The soft easily delaminated shales, allowed meticulous layer-by-layer investigation. A temporary preparation lab was set up on site to stabilise specimens, alongside identification and micro-sampling for geochemical analyses. This fieldwork unearthed an impressive array of vertebrates: coelacanths, an anura, pleurodiran turtles, squamates, and 5–7 different groups of actinopterygians. The most promising specimens were CT-scanned at the RBINS, offering invaluable insights for preparation and taxonomy. The introduction of an air abrasive unit using sodium bicarbonate and iron powder revolutionised the preparation workflow—dramatically improving speed and precision while preserving fine anatomical details, reducing the need for invasive tools like needles or airscribes. Many specimens remain to be prepared, some with exciting technical challenges. Yet the combination of exceptional preservation, with advanced 3D imaging, and refined preparation has allowed improving our understanding of macrosemiid and mawsoniid anatomy. We hope these finds could soon enough be on display in Lebanon, to share this remarkable Lagerstätte with the public.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Temperature and Salinity historical data collections covering the time period 1900-2013/2014 were created for each European marginal sea (Arctic Sea, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, and Mediterranean Sea) within the framework of SeaDataNet2 Project and they are available as ODV collections through a web catalog (https://www.seadatanet.org/Products/Aggregated-datasets). Two versions have been published and they represent a snapshot of the SeaDataNet database content at two different times: V1.1 (January 2014) and V2 (March 2015). A Quality Control Strategy (QCS) was developped and continuously refined in order to improve the quality of the database content and create the best data products. The QCS consists of four main phases: 1) data harvesting from the data infrastructure; 2) file and parameter aggregation; 3) secondary quality check analysis; 4)correction of data anomalies. The approach is iterative to facilitate the upgrade of the database content and it allows a versioning of data products. Regional temperature and salinity monthly climatologies have been produced from V1.1 historical data collections and they are also available (https://www.seadatanet.org/Products/Climatologies). Within the new SeaDataCloud Project the release of updated historical data collections and new climatologies is planned. SeaDataCloud novelties are the introduction of decadal climatologies at various resolutions, the development of climatologies for the Global Ocean and a task dedicated to new data products, like Mixed Layer Depth climatologies, Ocean Heat Content estimates, coastal climatologies from HF radar data. All SeaDataCloud products are available through a dedicated web catalogue together with their relative Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and Product Information Document (PIDoc) containing all specifications about product’s generation, quality assessment and technical details to facilitate users’ uptake. The presentation will briefly overview the existing SeaDataNet products and introduce the SeaDataCloud products’ plan, but the main focus will be on the first release (February 2018) of SeaDataCloud Temperature and Salinity historical data collections, spanning the time period 1900-2017, their characteristics in terms of space-time data distribution and their usability.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
