CALLOVIAN-OXFORDIAN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY AND PALEOENVIRONMENTS OF NORTHERN SINAI AND ISRAEL

Outcrops of the Zohar and Matmor formations in Gebel El-Maghara, northern Sinai, and Hamakhtesh Hagadol (Kurnub Anticline), southern Israel have yielded ostracodes belonging to the Ektyphocythere zoharensis Zone. Brachiopods recovered from the Zohar and Matmor formations in Sinai are Avonothyris variabilis and Ptyctothyris? daghaniensis. In Hamakhtesh Hagadol the following brachiopod fauna was found: Apatecosia inornata, Digonella boylani, Dissoria bretti, Pleuraloma triangulatum, Kutchithyris landeri, Polyplectella debriani, Striithyris saudiarabica, and S. telemi. A Late Callovian age is assigned to the upper part of the Zohar and Matmor formations based on ammonites (Peltoceras athleta-Quenstedtoceras (Lamberticeras) lamberti Zone) found in Sinai and Israel. The presence of Peltoceras solidum and Pseudobrightia sp. in the upper part of the Matmor Formation in Hamakhtesh Hagadol are indicative of the Q. (L.) lamberti Zone. The depositional environment was a warm, low energy shallow marine shelf, mostly peritidal, with few clastics. In the nearby Makhtesh Qatan area tidal channels indicate that part of the Zohar Formation was deposited in the intertidal zone. Highstand sea level systems tracts are found primarily in the more proximal Negev-Sinai area, such as the intra-Zohar (Early Late Callovian) and top of the Matmor (Late Callovian) formations. The Late Callovian-Early Oxfordian highstand sea level systems tracts, in the more distal Hermon area, indicate a connection with the pelagic western Neotethys. This highstand in the Hermon area is followed by a relatively deep calm environment of deposition within the Oxfordian Kidod Formation, as indicated by the ostracodes of the Exophthalmocythere? kidodensis Zone.