Abstract
Well preserved charophyte gyrogonites are discovered from the Kitadani Formation of the Tetori Group in the Takinamigawa area, Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture, central Japan. The Kitadani charoflora described in this paper is composed of five species of three genera, Clavator harrisii var. reyi (Grambast-Fessard), Mesochara harrisi (Mädler), Mesochara stipitata (Wang), Mesochara sp., and Stetlatochara sp. C. harrisii var. reyi is a member of Clavatoraceae, which is a biostratigraphically well established charophyte group and is unique in Upper Jurassic to Cretaceous nonmarine deposits. The occurrences of C. harrisii var. reyi associated with other charophytes indicate that the charophyte-rich horizon of the Kitadani Formation is assigned to the Barremian, which well agrees with the age estimation established by the nonmarine molluscan assemblage.
