Abstract
The Tsunemori fauna, from pebbly shale in the upper part of the Tsunemori Formation (Changhsingian) in the Akiyoshi area, southwest Japan, consists of 15 species of Middle to Late Permian brachiopods in 15 genera. The fauna contains both Boreal and Tethyan elements, and is closely allied with the Nabekoshiyama fauna from the upper Toyoma Formation of the South Kitakami Belt, northeast Japan, and the Kawahigashi fauna from the upper Maizuru Group of the Maizuru Belt, southwest Japan, in having the Lamnimargus-Megousia-Eolyttonia assemblage. Based on these findings, the accretion site of the Tsunemori Formation was probably located on the trench or inner trench slope along the eastern margin of North China (Sino-Korea), close to the South Kitakami and Maizuru areas, during the late Middle to late Late Permian (Capitanian-Changhsingian).
