Depositional facies containing non-marine vertebrate fossils in the Upper Cretaceous Himenoura Group on the Koshikijima Islands, Kagoshima, Japan

Abstract

Several new non-marine vertebrate fossil sites were found recently in the Kashima and Taira areas, Koshikijima Islands, western Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. In these areas, the Upper Cretaceous Campanian to Maastrichtian Himenoura Group crops out widely and is composed mainly of fl uvial, tidal fl at, shoreface, shelf, and slope deposits. Non-marine vertebrate remains such as the teeth and bones of reptiles (including dinosaurs, crocodilians, and aquatic turtles) and fi sh scales are abundant in various non-marine and marine depositional facies, though the remains are preserved in disarticulated and fragmented form (Miyake et al., 2009).