1161-72015
Bull. Goshoura Cret. Mus., No.16, 1 – 7 , March, 2015.

31(121866-0313(234310-5 )866-0313(34310-5 )

606-8502)

Discovery of a Mosasauridae tooth from the Upper Cretaceous Himenoura
Group in Kugushima Island, Kamiamakusa City, Kumamoto Prefecture,Southwestern Japan.
Hiromi Kurosu 1, Ryoji Yamada 2, Koji Hirose 1, Hiroshige Matsuoka 3( 1 Goshoura Cretaceous Museum, 4310-5 Goshoura, Goshoura Town, Amakusa City, Kumamoto 866-0313, Japan )( 2 Earth Science Club of Goshoura Cretaceous Museum, 4310-5 Goshoura, Goshoura Town, Amakusa City, Kumamoto 866-0313, Japan )( 3 Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University. Kyoto 606-8502, Japan )Abstract
Fossil Mosasauridae tooth were collected from the Upper Cretaceous Hinoshima Formation, Himenoura Group ofKugushima Island, Kamiamakusa City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. From previous research, Santonian age for thebased on tooth morphologic data and interpretations.

Keywords: Mosasauridae, Plioplatecarpinae tooth, Hinoshima Formation, Himenoura Group, Upper Cretaceous, Japan1(, 1986;, 1973;, 2011)
Santonian1973;(Sato et al., 2012), 2011(Tashiro, 1976;1998,, 1986;, 2013)

(GCMVP)

2

Fig.1. Map showing the fossil locality.

( Fig.
1)(Santonian, 1986;, 2011)( Fig. 3 )

cm

10cm
Inoceramus higoensis

Glicymeris amakusensis

Gaudrycerassp.
Fig. 2
Fig. 4(2003)

Order Squamata Oppel, 1811
Family Mosasauridae Gerves, 1853

Fig.2.
Tashiro et al., 1986; Kojo et al., 2011).
Asterisk indicate the horizon of mosasaurid tooth reported
here.

Subfamily Plioplatecarpinae (Williston), 1897
Gen. et sp. indet.
( Fig. 5, 6 )3Fig.3. Photograph of locality.

Fig.4. Geological columnar section of Hinoshima formation, Himenoura Group on Kugushima.

1(GCM-VP 348)
(bicarinate)

2

4

A

BC
Fig.5. Mosasaurid tooth from the Hinoshima Formation.
A: distal view, B: medial view, C: in top view. Scale bar, 1 cm.

(carina)(Aaron, et al., 2012)(1)(2)
10 mm)

((3)

8 mm

(4)
carina(5)carina(Plioplatecarpinae)(Russell, 1967; Konishi andCaldwell, 2009, 2011)
6Turonian

12
Maastrichtian(Konishi and Caldwell, 2011)(Massare, 1987)
4

5Acrushed carina

striation

Bwear facet

carinaD

crushed wear facetCD

crushed carina
wear facet←lingualcarina→buccalstriation

Fig.6. Drawings of the mosasaurid tooth from the Hinoshima Formation.
A: distal view, B: medial view, C: in top view, D: outline of basal cross-section of crown. Scale bar, 1 cm.

(, 1985a, 1985b;
2012, 2001, 2005; Konishi et al.,)(Sato et al., 2012)(ConiacianSantonian)
3000(Konishi and Caldwell, 2011)(, 1985a;(Coniacian)et al., 2012), 2008)(Sato6of the Family Echinorhinidae (Chondrichthyes,Coniacian

SantonianElasmobranchii) from the Upper Cretaceous
Himenoura Group in Kumamoto Prefecture,
Inoceramus

amakusensis

Southwestern Japan. Paleontological Research, 17(2), p.189-195.

(, 1986;, 2011)(2011) :.

ConiacianSantonian, 117(7), p.398-416.
Konishi, T. and Caldwell, M. W. (2009) : New materialof the mosasaur Plioplatecarpus nichollsae
Cuthbertson et al., 2007, clarifies problematicfeatures of the holotype specimen. Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology, 29 (2), p.417-436.

(Santonian)

Konishi, T. and Caldwell, M. W. (2011) : Two newplioplatecarpine (Squamata, Mosasauridae) genera
from the Upper Cretaceous of North America, anda global phylogenetic analysis of plioplatecarpines.
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 31 (4), p.754783.
Konishi, T., Tanimoto, M., Utsunomiya, S., Sato, M.,
and Watanabe, K. (2012) : A large mosasaurine(Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the latest
Cretaceous of Osaka Prefecture (SW Japan).
Paleontological Research, 16 (2), p.79-87.
Leblanc, A. R. H., Caldwell, M. W. and Bardet, N.
(2012) : A new mosasaurine from the Maastrichtian(Upper Cretaceous) phosphates of Morocco and its
implications for mosasaurine systematics. Journalof Vertebrate Paleontology 32 (1), p.82–104.
Massare, J. A. (1987) : Tooth morphology and prey
preference of Mesozoic marine reptiles. Journal ofVertebrate Paleontology, 7 (2), p.121-137.
Sato, T., Konishi, T., Hirayama, R. and Caldwell, M. W.
(2012) : A review of the Upper Cretaceous marine
reptiles from Japan. Cretaceous Research, 37,p.319-340.
(2008) :.

,23, p.1-11.
(1985a) :(2003) :(.

, 7, p.27-37.
Kitamura, N. (2013) : Description of a New Species).

, 2, p.31-42.
(1985b)Mosasaurus.

7, 30, p.45-66.
,,,,.

(1986) :50 (1), p.37-40.
(2005) :.

, 35,p.151-167.

.

, 54 (2), p.83-88.

Tashiro, M. (1976) : Bivalve Faunas of the Cretaceous

Russell, D. A. (1967) : Systematics and morphology ofHimenoura Group in Kyushu. Palaeontological

American mosasaurs (Reptilia, Sauria) . Peabody

Society of Japan, Special papers, 19, 102p.

Museum of Natural History, Yale University(2001) :bulletin, 23, 241p.
2015

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