USGS F-265, Ryukyu Island - Foster (1965) (Pleistocene of Japan)

Also known as USGS F-265

Where: Ryukyu, Japan (24.5° N, 124.2° E: paleocoordinates 24.4° N, 124.2° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Ryukyu Limestone Formation (Sakishima Group), Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)

• The Ryukyu Limestone unconformably overlies rocks of the Ishigaki Group, the Miyara Formation, the Nosoko Formation, and the Omoto Granite. Two principal lithologies are present - a stratified sandy limestone, and a massive coralliferous limestone. Conglomeratic limestone is common at th base of the formation

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: poorly lithified, brown, yellow, sandy, calcareous limestone and lithified, fine-grained, shelly/skeletal, calcareous limestone

• The sandy foraminiferal limestone consists of sand sized particles loosely to formly cemented together by calcium carbonate. It is white, light tan or cream. The coralliferous limestone is mostly a well lithified, bioclastic, recrystallized limestone composed of tests or fragments of forams, pieces of corals, pieces of algae, and other types of fossils in a groundmass of fine calcareous organic debris.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: mold/impression

Reposited in the USNM

Collection methods: quarrying,

• Probably reposited in USGS and USNM collections

Primary reference: H. L. Foster. 1965. Geology of Ishigaki-shima Ryukyu-retto. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 399(A):1-119 [A. Miller/A. Hendy/A. Hendy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 41604: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 17.07.2004

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Representative of corals and mollusca. Identified by J.W. Wells (corals) and F.S. MacNeil (mollusca)
Anthozoa
 Scleractinia - Merulinidae
"Favia pallida" = Dipsastraea pallida Dana 1846 stony coral
Favites abdita Ellis and Solander 1786 stony coral
Goniastrea pectinata Ehrenberg 1834 stony coral
Gastropoda
 Cerithioidea - Cerithiidae
"Contumax nodulosus" = Cerithium (Contumax)
"Contumax nodulosus" = Cerithium (Contumax) cerith snail