USGS 17679 - Okinawa (Pliocene of Japan)

Also known as WF 278

Where: Okinawa, Japan (26.2° N, 127.8° E: paleocoordinates 26.5° N, 127.3° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Yonabaru Formation (Shimajiri Group), Pliocene (5.3 - 2.6 Ma)

• The Yonabaru Clay includes all Shimajiri Formation exposed below the upper tuffaceous pumiceous zone. Yonabaru Mudstone (now a formation) spans calcareous nannofossil zones CN10b to middle of CN12b and planktonic foram zones PL1 to PL4 (UjiiĆ©, 1994), indicating an age of primarily Pliocene (but ranging from latest Messinian to possibly early Gelasian).

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: deep-water; poorly lithified, silty, sandy claystone and concretionary, brown, gray sandstone

• Molluscs found in assemblages of the Yonabaru Clay indicate moderately shallow to moderately deep water. Probably a depth of less than 100 fathoms in shallow facies and probably not more than 300 fathoms in deeper facies.
• Bluish to gray silty to sandy clay, commonly with hackly to conchoidal fracture and fine dark-colored laminated to massive sand, weathering brown to gray, and in places contains large lime indurated concretions of sand.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: original aragonite

Reposited in the USNM

Collection methods: quarrying,

• Collections held in USNM and UGSG repositories.

Primary reference: F. S. MacNeil. 1960. Tertiary and Quaternary Gastropoda of Okinawa: A comparison of the late Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene Gastropoda of Okinawa with related faunas of East Asia together with a resume of the geological setting of the fossiliferous deposits. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 339:1-148 [A. Miller/C. Ferguson/P. Wagner]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 42166: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 25.07.2004

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Exhaustive for gastropoda.
Gastropoda
 Cerithioidea - Turritellidae
 Neogastropoda - Ancillariidae
"Ancilla (Baryspira) cf. albocallosa" = Amalda (Baryspira)
"Ancilla (Baryspira) cf. albocallosa" = Amalda (Baryspira) snail
 Neogastropoda - Buccinidae
? Pisania sp. Bivona-Bernardi 1832 true whelk
 Neogastropoda - Conidae
Conus mucronatus cone shell
 Neogastropoda - Turridae
 Neogastropoda - Muricidae
 Neogastropoda - Volutidae
 Sorbeoconcha - Naticidae
Polinices cf. cumingianus moon snail
Subspecies: Polinices cf. cumingianus madioensis
 Heterostropha - Architectonicidae
"Architectonica maxima" = Architectonica (Architectonica) maxima Philippi 1849 sundial
Architectonica perspectiva Linnaeus 1767 sundial
 Neritoidea - Neritidae
"Nerita chamaeleon" = Nerita (Theliostyla) chamaeleon
"Nerita chamaeleon" = Nerita (Theliostyla) chamaeleon Linnaeus 1758 snail