Oligocene Brachyodus from Nabeshima Isl., Yamaguchi Prefecture

Abstract

The Oligocene Ashiya Group and its equivalent groups yield abundant fossils of marine vertebrates. But there are only a few examples of occurrence of terrestrial mammals. This paper reports an occurrence of an anthracothere, Brachyodus sp. from Nabeshima, Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Honshu, Japan. The specimen includes many bones of skull elements with the second upper molar. This is the first record of anthracothere skull from Japan. The specimen belongs to a certain species in the Genus Brachyodus. It is of another species of Brachyodus japonicus MATSUMOTO, 1925 reported from Sasebo, Kyushu Island.