Al-Sarrar, Locality 9, bed 6, Dam Formation (Miocene of Saudi Arabia)

Where: Saudi Arabia (26.0° N, 49.4° E: paleocoordinates 22.9° N, 46.8° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

When: Dam Formation, Burdigalian (20.4 - 16.0 Ma)

• Late Early Miocene.

•Bed 6 is a few meters above the principal fossiliferous level.

•There are 3 Formations in the succession - the Hadruck, Dam and Hofuf (Hofuf overlies the others). Type section of the Dam Formation is Jabal al Lidam. The depth of the formation at Al-Sarrar varies, but is around 30m. Near the Arabian Gulf the Formation is entirely marine, with more continental facies inland. The Al-Sarrar area is an area of 'continental sediments interbedded with the marine series'.

•Fauna has been collected from a number of localities which have been entered individually.

•Formation is Burdigalian in age, see Chan et al. 2017 and Ali et al. 2021 for despotional history of Dam Formation.

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; lithology not reported

• No lithology given.

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Collection methods: bulk,

• All fossil material housed in the Department of Antiquities and Museums at Riyadh.

Primary reference: H. Thomas, S. Sen, M. Khan, B. Battail, and G. Ligabue. 1982. The Lower Miocene Fauna of Al-Sarrar (Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia). Atlal 5(3a):109-136 [A. Turner/H. O'Regan/H. O'Regan]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 47075: authorized by Alan Turner, entered by Hannah O'Regan on 07.02.2005

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Sirenia ribs found in surface deposits, but cannot be correlated with uppermost beds of localities 6, 8 and 9.
Mammalia
 Sirenia - Sirenia
Sirenia indet. sirenian
fragments of ribs.
Anthozoa
 Scleractinia - Poritidae
Porites sp. Link 1807 stony coral
a fragment of colony.