Kazuo Terada

Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, Japan

Byttneriophyllum tiliifolium is a leaf fossil-species of the family Malvaceae that was distributed widely throughout Eurasia from the Miocene to the Pliocene. An affinity to some Malvadendrina subfamilies has been suggested for Byttneriophyllum-bearing plants, but remains to be clarified due to insufficient information on other organs. Here, we rep...

A so-called "Fusoboku" fossil wood from the Pleistocene Gunchu Formation in Iyo City, Ehime Prefecture is examined anatomically. Regarding the species of the "Fusoboku" fossil woods, it has been described that they are Metasequoia of Cupressaceae because plant fossils such as cones and seeds of Metasequoia glyptostroboides have been often found fro...

The early Aptian Kitadani Formation of the Tetori Group outcrops at the “Dinosaur Quarry” located in Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture, which is well known for its rich floral and vertebrate fossil assemblages. The authors previously reported a diverse palynological assemblage of spores, gymnosperm pollen grains, freshwater algae and one epiphyllous...

A new fossil cycad species, Sueria laxinervis, is described from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Quiriquina Formation in Cocholgüe, Bíobío Region, Chile. The generic assignment is supported by the taeniopterid-type leaf with haplocheilic stomata and sinuate anticlinal walls of leaf epidermal cells, while S. laxinervis clearly differs from the...

Fossil Taxaceae are documented for the Cenozoic throughout most of the northern hemisphere, but the pre-Cenozoic history of this group is still poorly known. The fossil wood record is difficult but can shed light on this history. We critically evaluated the fossil woods assigned to Taxaceae and then compared the fossil record of taxaceous woods to...

This book is an illustration of the Kuruma-type flora reported by late Dr. Tatsuaki Kimura with reference to Kimura and Tsujii, 1980a, 1980b, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, Kimura et al., 1988 and is summarizes the Jurassic plant fossils in Japan including many photos, but the book is written in Japanese.Japanese paleobotanists are only a few and look lik...

Cone scales and leaves of the Araucariaceae are reported from the Loreto Formation in Río de Las Minas, Punta Arenas, Chile. Two types of cone scales including one new species, Araucarites alatisquamosus are recognized. They are similar to Araucaria section Eutacta. Two types of leaves are assigned to Araucaria nathorstii Dusén, and one new type is...

A fragment of turtle shell and a ganoid scale of bony fish were discovered from a boulder which was derived from the Lower Jurassic Kuruma Group in the riverbed of the Sakaigawa Creek in eastern Toyama Prefecture, Central Japan. Geology of the fossil locality and co-occurring bivalves suggest that the horizon is Hettangian to Toarcian in age. This...

A calcified fossil wood from the Shimonada Formation (early Maastrichtian) of the Upper Cretaceous Izumi Group collected at the coast of Nadachino, Minamiawaji City in the Awaji Island, Hyogo Prefecture is studied anatomically. The fossil has the axial and radial intercellular (resin) canals and was identified as Piceoxylon sp. of Pinaceae. The fos...

Araucarioxylon Kraus is a widely known fossil genus generally used for woods similar to that of the extant Araucariaceae. However, since 1905, several researchers have pointed out that this name is a junior nomenclatural synonym and, as such, a nomen illegitimum. At least four generic names are in current use for fossil wood of this type: Agathoxyl...

A single isolated cone-scale fossil of Swedenborgia was discovered from the Lower Jurassic Kuruma Group at the Kuruma area of Nagano Prefecture for the first time. The fossil is closely similar to S . sp. A, which was reported from the Lower Jurassic Iwamuro Formation of Gunma Prefecture by Kimura and Tsujii（1984）. Furthermore, the fossil resembles...

The Tetori Group, which crops out in the Inner Zone of central Japan, has been extensively studied for its rich floral and vertebrate fossil assemblages. The authors provide the first contribution to the palynoflora of the Kitadani Formation, which has been dated as late Barremian to early Aptian on the basis of the freshwater bivalves recorded fro...

Erect fossil stumps were found from the outcrop of the Upper Triassic Hinabata Formation, the uppermost part of the Nariwa Group at Hinabata, Nariwa-cho,Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture, SW Japan. They are evidence of the oldest fossil forest in Japan. The Upper Triassic Nariwa Group is mostly composed of non-marine deposits except the marine Jit...

Three silicified woods were collected as boulders from the Sugiyama River at Kitadani-cho, Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture. One was identified as Xenoxylon latiporosum （Cramer）Gothan. Each of the other two has cupressoid and taxodioid cross-field pittings, respectively. The wood with cupressoid pittings was identified as Cupressinoxylon sp. of the...

Three silicified woods were collected as boulders from the Sugiyama River at Kitadani-cho, Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture. One was identified as Xenoxylon latiporosum (Cramer) Gothan. Each of the other two has cupressoid and taxodioid cross-field pittings, respectively. The wood with cupressoid pittings was identified as Cupressinoxylon sp. of th...

Fossil woods were collected from the Upper Cretaceous to Paleocene beds distributed around Heilongjang (Amur) River area of China and Russia． A total of 43 specimens were collected from Baishantou, Longgushan and Yongancun in Jiayin, China，and 85 specimens from Zeya-Bureya Basin lying southeast of Blagoveshchensk in Russia. Selected specimens were...

Eighty-two silicified fossil woods were collected from Miocene forma-tions on the western coast of the Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Twenty-two taxa (5 conifers and 17 dicotyledons) were identified. Five new species (Chamaecyparis parathyoides, Pterocarya parvipora, Populus soyaensis, Schima protowallichii, Lagerstroemia odaniense) and two species no...

Eighty-two silicified fossil woods were collected from Miocene formations on the western coast of the Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Twenty-two taxa (5 conifers and 17 dicotyledons) were identified. Five new species (Chamaecyparis parathyoides, Pterocarya parvipora, Populus soyaensis, Schima protowallichii, Lagerstroemia odaniense) and two species not...

Dinosaur and bird footprints from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Kowashimizu Formation of the Tetori Group have been newly discovered in the Asuwa River area of eastern Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture in the central part of Japan. The dinosaur footprints are those of a theropod and an ornithopod, and one footprint is considered to possibly be t...

Fossil woods from the Paleogene（Upper Eocene to Lower Oligocene）Kobe Group in Hyogo Prefecture of Japan were examined. 15 specimens deposited in the Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Hyogo, were identified with their thin microscopic slides. We recognized eight taxa: two coniferous taxa （Pinaceae and Cupressaceae）and six dicotyledonous taxa（Ca...

An educational movie titled“Looking for the origin of flowering plants－the origin and evolution of Angiosperms－”was produced by the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in 2004. In the movie, two 3D animations : “Differences between Angiosperms and Gymnosperms”and“Phylogenetic diagram of the land plants”were made using computer graphics. I report here...

Archaefructus is one of the earliest known angiosperms discovered from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China. We created 3D reconstruction models of two of the three known species of Archaefructus, namely, A. liaoningensis and A. sinensis. During the course of modeling, we noticed some species-specific features. A....

Fossil woods from the Lower Cretaceous Tetori Group collected at two areas (the Kamiichi and the Nagato River areas) in Toyama Prefecture, Central Japan were studied anatomically. In the Kamiichi area, nine fossil woods were collected from the Wasabu Member of the Atotsugawa Formation in the Tetori Group. In the Nagato River area, one washed-out sp...

This paper reviews the study of the Tetori-type floras, with a major emphasis on the Tetori Flora, the plant fossil assemblages from the Tetori Group distributed in the Hokuriku region, Central Japan, and discusses the climatic changes inferred from them. The Tetori Flora recovered from the Lower Cretaceous Itoshiro and Akaiwa subgroups, upper two...

23 fossil woods were collected from the Tetori Group (Lower Cretaceous) at the Mekko Valley, Oguchi-mura, Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan. 19 fossil woods were studied anatomically and idetified as Xenoxylon latiporosum (Cramer) Gothan.

The Tertiary so-called 'Reevesia' fossil woods from the Oligocene and Miocene in Japan are characterized by distinct ring porosity and tile cells in rays. Comparison of these 'Reevesia' fossil woods with extant woods showed that only one specimen has characteristics of Reevesia, while the others differ from all extant genera of the Malvales, and so...

Larix is an under-represented taxon in pollen assemblages, and its contribution to past forest composition is difficult to estimate from macrofossil assemblages only. Buried forests reflect the past forest composition directly, and the dimension of the component individuals and the distribution of forest stands can also be studied. Forests buried b...

Silicified woods from the lower Miocene Yanagida Formation were collected from two sites, Mawaki and Uchiura, in the northeastern Noto Peninsula, central Japan. Among 80 specimens, 15 species representing 13 families were identified, including six new species: Torreya mioxyla (Taxaceae), Castanopsis uchiuraensis (Fagaceae), Camellia japonoxyla (The...

Silicified woods from the lower Miocene Yanagida Formation were collected from two sites, Mawaki and Uchiura, in the northeastern Noto Peninsula, central Japan. Among 80 specimens, 15 species representing 13 families were identified, including six new species: Torreya mioxyla (Taxaceae), Castanopsis uchiuraensis (Fagaceae), Camellia japonoxyla (The...

Fossil forests (~12 650 yr BP) buried in Hachinohe tephra from Towada volcano, Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, were studied dendro-chronologically. In the forests, 22 well-preserved wood discs from erect stumps and lying trunks (14 of Picea, 5 of Larix, 3 of Abies) were obtained, and the tree-ring widths were measured and correlated. Cross-datin...