Where: Hokkaido, Japan (43.7° N, 142.1° E: paleocoordinates 43.9° N, 141.3° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

When: Chichibubetu Formation (Fukagawa Group), Messinian to Messinian (7.2 - 3.6 Ma)

• early Pliocene; a.k.a. Chichibubetsu Formation

•

•The Chippubetsu Formation, which forms part of the Fukagawa Group exposed in Hokkaido, Japan [80]. The specimen was found in a horizon below a tuff level (“T2”) likely correlative with the S1 tuff of the Takikawa Formation [81], which has been dated to 4.1 ± 0.6 Ma based on fission-track dating [82]. The age of the base of the Chippubetsu Formation is currently unknown. However, the lower part of this formation has been correlated with the upper part of the Horokaoshirarika Formation based on palynological data [80], with the latter falling into the Neodenticula kamtschatica diatom zone [83], dated to ca. 6.4–3.5 Ma [84]. Together, these estimates imply an approximate age range of 6.4–4.1 Ma. (Marx & Fordyce, 2015)

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: transition zone or lower shoreface; lithology not reported

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: original phosphate

Primary reference: T. Kimura. 2009. Review of the fossil balaenids from Japan with a re-description of Eubalaena shinshuensis (Mammalia, Cetacea, Mysticeti). Quaderni del Museo di Storia Naturale di Livorno 22:3-21 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 97629: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Mark Uhen on 16.08.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)