Shobara City: Burdigalian, Japan

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Osteichthyes - Cetacea
see common names

Geography
Country:Japan State/province:Hiroshima County:Shobara
Coordinates: 34.9° North, 133.0° East (view map)
Paleocoordinates:34.5° North, 130.4° East (Wright 2013)
Basis of coordinate:estimated from map
Geographic resolution:local area
Time
Period: Neogene Epoch: Miocene
Stage: Burdigalian 10 m.y. bin: Cenozoic 5
Key time interval: Burdigalian
Age range of interval: 20.45 - 15.98 m.y. ago
Age estimate: 17 to 14.9 Ma (other)
Stratigraphy
Geological group:Bihoku Formation:Korematsu
Stratigraphic resolution:formation
Stratigraphy comments: The Korematsu Formation in the Shobara area underlies the Itabashi Formation, and together with latter forms the middle/upper portion of the Bihoku Group [114]. Calcareous nannoplankton correlates the Korematsu Formation and the lower part of the Itabashi Formation with the upper part of nannoplankton zone NN4 [114], suggesting a latest Burdigalian or early Langhian age with a minimum of 14.9 Ma [20, 54]. A further study [115] specifically correlated the Korematsu and Itabashi formations exposed along the stretch of the Saijyo River that yielded the whale fossils with the top of nannoplankton zone NN4, and the beginning of the “Mid-Neogene Climatic Optimum” (ca. 16–15 Ma [49, 116]). By contrast, diatom-based biostratigraphic data place the upper part of the Bihoku Group almost entirely in the late Burdigalian (17.0–16.0 Ma) [35, 36, 117, 118]. Together, these estimates amount to an age range of 17.0–14.9 Ma. (Marx & Fordyce, 2015)
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology: not reported
Includes fossils?Y
Environment:marine indet.
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Collection methods and comments
Reason for describing collection:general faunal/floral analysis
Metadata
Database number:278637
Authorizer:M. Uhen Enterer:M. Uhen
Research group:vertebrate
Created:2026-04-23 12:53:18 Last modified:2026-04-23 12:53:18
Access level:the public Released:0000-00-00 00:00:00
Creative Commons license:
Reference information

Primary reference:

94656. T. Yamaoka. 1995. A shark tooth embedded in the ulna of a fossil whale from Shobara. Journal of the Hiba Society of Natural History 164:63-64 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]