A. Almogilabin et al., OCCURRENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE FORAMINIFER AMMONIA-BECCARII-TEPIDA (CUSHMAN) IN WATER BODIES, RECENT AND QUATERNARY, OF THE DEAD-SEA RIFT, ISRAEL, Marine micropaleontology, 26(1-4), 1995, pp. 153-159
The euryhaline foraminifer Ammonia beccarii tepida has lived in water
bodies of the Dead Sea rift from at least 2.0 Ma to the present day. I
t was found in the Mazar Formation, the Samra Formation, the 'Ubeidiya
Formation, and the 30-year old Navit Pool near Mount Sedom. The lakes
in which these formations were deposited are athalassic (i.e. not mar
ine relicts), and are mutually unconnected in time and space. Their Am
monia faunas were not inherited, but a result of repeated colonization
(most probably by avian transport). Ammonia beccarii tepida, though h
ardy and opportunistic, flourishes mainly in shallow, saline to bracki
sh environments. Its fossil distribution in the Dead Sea rift shows th
at in mature lakes it tends to disappear, either due to competition fr
om non-foraminiferids, or due to excessive freshening of the aqueous e
nvironment.