In the southern part of the Kii peninsula are developed the thick strata belonging to the Shimantogawa Supergroup. They have been collectively called the Muro Group and are overlain with unconformity by the middle Miocene Kumano and Tanabe Groups. The Kumano and Tanabe Groups represent gentle geological structures, while the Muro Group shows complicated geological structures. From general lithological and structural aspects the Muro Group has been provisionally assigned to the Palaeogene Period, although no reliable fossil evidence has been found. The writers divided the Muro Group into the following three subgroups in ascending order, i.e. the Otonashigawa-Muro, the Yomurakawa-Muro and the ascending order, i. e. the Otonashigawa-Muro and the Ukekawa-Muro subgroups. The Ukekawa-Muro overlies unconformably the 賓murakawa-Muro, and the Yomurakawa-Muro overlies conformably the Otonashigawa-Muro. Fortunately the writers discovered the ill-preserved molluscan fossils which are referred to Costacallista cfr. shikokuensis, Venericardia (Cyclocardia) toliunagai and Portlandia (Portlandella) sp. from the lower part of the Ukekawa-Muro at Binda of Wabuka-ku, Kushimoto-cho, Nishimuro-gun, Wakayama Prefecture. These fossils have the correlative elements with the so called Asagai-Poronai fauna which is regarded to the upper Oligocene or the lower Miocene. Consequently it is ascertained that the Muro Group contains the upper Oligocene or the lower Miocene strata at its upper part.
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