A Unique Petroglyph Carving on the Shawangunk Ridge, Lower Hudson Valley, New York

A unique circular petroglyph from the Shawangunk Ridge in the lower Hudson Valley, New York was found carved into the resistant metaconglomerate/quartzitic rock not far from Mohonk Mountain House. The Shawangunk Formation crops out near Rosendale, New York and extends in a general southwestward direction accessible along Route 17 near Wurtsboro, again at the Delaware Water Gap and then can be traced in into Pennsylvania and Virginia. The ridge and surrounding area (e.g. Wallkill Valley) is lacking in chert, a vital raw material used in the carving of petroglyphs (Feldman, et al., 2016). However, there are numerous other examples of petroglyphs in the Hudson Valley. It is possible that the petroglyph in the Shawangunk Formation represents a territorial limit of post-glacial tribes of the Lithic or Archaic stages, possibly the Lenape. Similar petroglyphs are found at the V-V Heritage Site—Camp Verde One in Arizona, not far from Sedona. One panel may have been modelled after a calendar. A circle with cross, like the Shawangunk petroglyph, carved by southeastern Indigenous people, has been interpreted to represent the sun or a Siouan “four directions” symbol. A broken cross within a circle represents the four seasons. The Shawangunk petroglyph is similar in outline to the sun and may have also been related to a calendar carved by post-glacial inhabitants of the lower Hudson Valley

Teaching Paleobiology to Children with Autism

We describe the importance of using research-based instruction in science education, especially in regard to children with autism spectrum disorder. This study details various methods to address the needs and develop the strengths of children with autism through the science curriculum. We discuss methods to minimize the anxiety of individuals with autism. Our focus is on how the social, emotional, and general life skills of autistic students can be enhanced through the use of the science curriculum. Science, specifically paleobiology, can be used as a bridge to help children with autism better connect with, interact with, and understand their immediate environments. Science teachers can harness the sensory component integral to science, as well as use it to deepen students’ understanding of natural phenomena. Furthermore, incorporating effective teaching methods into paleobiology methodologies can help students with autism become more settled in their social, natural, and sensory environments. The positive effect of bottom-up instruction, task analysis, and co-operative learning/peer tutoring as well as others are explored. Multimodal teaching, especially, is vital in science classrooms, and especially for students with autism. We discuss how to build on existing strengths of children with autism and incorporate them into the science classroom. Finally, this work explores how to use the paleobiology curriculum to broaden life skills and understanding concepts such as change, accepting differences, time, and size

The Map Portal Project at the Geological Survey of Israel

The Geological Survey of Israel is mandated to prepare official geological maps of Israel at different scales. When, by the end of the 80’s, GIS systems became more popular and a realistic option for us, we started the development of a methodology and system that led to the completion of a new geological map of Israel at 1:200,000 in 1998. This resulted in a huge impetus for the preparation of the Geological Map of Israel at 1:50,000 in 79 separate sheets. In addition, using the above GIS system, other maps were prepared; outcomes of various projects - in hydrogeology, geological hazards and economic geology. All these constitute a very valuable GIS-based database that has been available for years now. About a year and a half ago the Geological Survey decided to move on to the next stage: the development of a “map portal” that would make it possible to share our maps and geographic databases in a much more open and dynamic way. During this time, we developed a working methodology that begins with a first contact between the GIS officer and the researcher, and ends with a detailed specification of the steps to be accomplished and the functionality of the map on the portal. We also started sharing the first maps on the portal system and through the portal, to the digital world. In this report we illustrate the first three maps (WebApps, according to ESRI portal jargon) that we uploaded into our portal system: the Geological Map of Israel at 1: 200,000 (1998 version), the Active Faults Map of Israel (2013 version) and a partial version of the Boreholes Database Map. In each case we illustrate the capabilities of the WebApps and some of its functionality

Interactive Map Portal of Some Important Fossil Localities Along the Southern Tethyan Margin of the Sephardic (Triassic) and Ethiopian (Jurassic) Faunal Provinces

The use of a “map portal” allows researchers to publish their maps and the data incorporated therein in a simple way that will reach a broad audience. Colleagues, as well as other workers worldwide, can connect to the portal through the internet and display the maps on desktop computers. The process is dynamic; any change made in the source map is immediately displayed on the user’s desktop. In this report we illustrate a map of Triassic and Jurassic brachiopod collecting localities on the southern Tethyan margin in the Middle East. The locations are shown as red points that overlie a base map. By clicking on a point, a small box is opened that contains the textual data of the specimens collected at that locality: species names, the name of the author or collector, GIS data and one or more related field photos (if available). Brachiopod-bearing strata include some classic sites such as Douvillé’s (1916) and Cossmann’s (1925) localities in northern Sinai, Egypt, Muir-Wood’s (1925) report on the fauna from Wadi Zarqa, Jordan, and Cooper’s (1989) study of brachiopods from the Tuwaiq Mountains, Saudi Arabia. More modern studies are also noted such as Feldman’s brachiopod studies from Gebel El-Maghara and Gebel El-Minshera, northern Sinai and from Hamakhtesh Hagadol and Makhtesh Ramon in southern Israel

The Triassic Saharonim Formation of the Sephardic Province on the Southern Tethyan Margin Is an Analog for the Triassic Germanic Muschelkalk of Western Europe

The Germanic Muschelkalk consists of a sedimentary sequence of limestone and dolostone units that overlies the Permian Buntsandstein Formation and underlies the Middle and Late Triassic Keuper Formation. The three formations form the Germanic Triassic Supergroup. The Muschelkalk was deposited in a shallow marine environment that was only partially connected to the Tethys Ocean to the south with the middle section evaporitic indicating a restricted basin. Fossiliferous beds are often biostromal such as the well-known Coenothyris brachiopod beds (e.g. Terebratula Bed, terebratulid facies) common in the Muschelkalk. The Saharonim Formation of the Sephardic Province, found along the southern shore of the Tethys Ocean, consists of limestone and shale beds with occasional marls and bioturbated micrites. The formation is rich in marine fossils, especially the Fossiliferous Limestone Member from Makhtesh Ramon, southern Israel where the brachiopod genera Coenothyris and Tunethyris are common. The formation was also deposited in an open shelf environment that is indicative of the main transgressive phase of the Middle Triassic in the area. A shallow marine depositional environment is suggested by the numerous and diverse nautiloid population. The Saharonim Formation is similar to the Germanic Muschelkalk in that the lithology is comparable and the fossil constituents, although more diverse, are similar, especially among the brachiopods. Characteristic fossils common to both include: Encrinus, Ceratites, Germanonautilus, Lima, Myophoria, Plagiostoma, Hybodus and Nothosaurus

A Dielasma Community from the Triassic of Makhtesh Ramon, Southern Israel

The cosmopolitan brachiopod Dielasma ranges from the Upper Mississippian through the Upper Triassic. In southern Israel a new Dielasma community is recognized from the Triassic Saharonim Formation, Ramon Crater. The shells represent a new species and are very strongly sulciplicated, a feature that seems to be more prevalent in the Mesozoic than the Paleozoic. The Saharonim Formation was deposited under normal, calm, relatively shallow marine conditions as part of the global transgression of the Early Ladinian sea. There is no evidence of evaporitic or dolomitic sediments. The complete absence of scouring within the carbonates or signs of channeling and ripple marks implies that most of the Fossiliferous Limestone Member from which the shells were collected was deposited at least beneath wave base (at a paleolatitude of within 10°N) and may have been deposited even at a depth of between 100 to 200 m. Faunal constituents of the Saharonim Formation include conodonts, ostracods, foraminiferans, bivalves, cephalopods, gastropods, echinoderms and vertebrate remains that belong to the Sephardic Province and are diagnostic of the Middle Triassic series of Israel. The faunal composition and shallow depositional environment of the strata studied are useful in correlating the Triassic rocks in the Negev with those in Europe, and helps differentiate the Sephardic Province from the Germanic Muschelkalk and the Alpine Tethyan faunas to the north

A Freshwater Community on the Shawangunk Ridge in the Lower Mid-Hudson Valley, New York

The Shawangunk Ridge in the lower mid-Hudson Valley extends from the vicinity of Rosendale through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Within the first thirty miles can be found five “sky lakes”: Mohonk, Minnewaska, Awosting, Mud Pond and Maratanza. Since these lakes occur on the top of the ridge they have no drainage basin. Here we report on the pH and other abiotic factors that impact the aquatic fauna of Mohonk Lake. The pH of the lake is 7 near the surface. Lake Minnewaska’s pH increased from 4 to 6 in the last twenty years. The pH of the other three sky lakes (pH=4) may be influenced by acid seeps, reactivation of faults permitting acidic water to migrate into the lakes, or a decrease in the buffering capacity of the underlying Martinsburg Formation. Nine taxa of aquatic insects were collected from Mohonk Lake along with six invertebrate (Isopoda, Amphipoda, Gastropoda, Hirudinea, Crustacea, Hexapoda) and four vertebrate taxa with a diversity index of 55.5. This system was less diverse than the Lily Pond, a site studied previously, but had significantly higher counts of individuals. This is most likely due, at least in part, to the larger scale and deeper water column of Mohonk Lake. The other Sky Lakes are believed to possess a comparable species composition since the habitats are similar, but may differ somewhat depending on the specific pH of each lake

An Unusual Occurrence of Arthrophycus Alleghaniensis(?) on the Shawangunk Ridge, Lower Mid-Hudson Valley, New York

The Shawangunk Formation is a medial Silurian conglomerate that crops out from near Rosendale, south through Wurtsboro, New York, High Point State Park and the Delaware Water Gap in New Jersey, and at Lehigh Gap, Pennsylvania after which it continues into Maryland and Virginia. The formation overall is interpreted to primarily represent a braided stream environment with flowage from mountains to the east that arose during the Taconic Orogeny into a basin toward the west. The trace fossil Arthrophycus was found in the upper-middle part of the formation on the Shawangunk Ridge at Mohonk, near New Paltz, New York. Arthrophycus is normally found on the bottom of beds, however these specimens occur in place on the top of a bed. The trace consists of simple burrows lacking in ornamentation and medial ridge due to weathering; the cross sectional outline is not preserved. Arthrophycus is extremely rare in the Shawangunk Formation, with the only previous know occurrence of the trace reported in a single reference from 1928. While it is possible that the trace maker was terrigenous, the depositional environment of these traces was likely estuarine. Sea level rise or tidal ebbs and flows would have enabled marine burrowers to form traces in the conglomerate which, in these beds, is sandier with no large pebbles. This is supported by the occurrence of eurypterids in the formation that were euryhaline and lived in a wide range of salinities

Brachiopod community

19 p. : ill., map ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 15-18).A brachiopod community from the Fossiliferous Limestone Member (Upper Anisian-Lower Ladinian) of the Triassic Saharonim Formation at Har Gevanim, Makhtesh Ramon, southern Israel, is dominated by the terebratulid Coenothyris oweni Feldman. The community shows evidence of time-averaging and is largely composed of a single cohort of juvenile mortality of one spatfall. The Saharonim Formation was deposited under normal, calm, relatively shallow marine conditions as part of the global Anisian-Ladinian transgression. One horizon, varying in thickness between 1 and 1.5 cm, represents an autochthonous obrution deposit of juvenile Coenothyris brachiopods and 10 bivalve genera that were rapidly buried by pulses of clay in the form of flocculated mud. Other faunal constituents of the Saharonim Formation include conodonts, ostracodes, foraminiferans, bivalves, cephalopods, gastropods, echinoderms, and vertebrate remains that belong to the Sephardic Province and are diagnostic of the Middle Triassic series of Israel. The faunal composition and shallow depositional environment of the strata studied are useful in correlating the Triassic rocks in the Negev with those in Europe and help to differentiate the Sephardic Province from the Germanic Muschelkalk and the Alpine Tethyan faunas to the north

The Authenticity of the James Ossuary

An archaeometric analysis of the James Ossuary inscription “James Son of Joseph Brother of Jesus” strengthens the contention that the ossuary and its engravings are authentic. The beige patina can be observed on the surface of the ossuary, continuing gradationally into the engraved inscription. Fine long striations made by the friction of falling roof rocks continuously crosscut the letters. Many dissolution pits are superimposed on several of the letters of the inscription. In addition to calcite and quartz, the patina contains the following minerals: apatite, whewellite and weddelite (calcium oxalate). These minerals result from the biogenic activity of microorganisms that require a long period of time to form a bio-patina. Moreover, the heterogeneous existence of wind-blown microfossils (nannofossils and foraminifers) and quartz within the patina of the ossuary, including the lettering zone, reinforces the authenticity of the inscription