Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum

Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum No. 4

The present paper is a review on vertebrate fossils of the Miocene Mizunami Group of Central Japan. It follows the report which was presented in 1974 by Kamei, T. and OKAZAKI, Y. In the recent years, many vertebrate fossils have been found and reported from the Mizunami Group. They reveal that at least two species of rhinocerotids are present in the Hiramaki Fauna, terrestrial facies of that area in the Early to Middle Miocene. A myomorph rodent and a trionychid turtle are added to the list of the fauna. The Togari Fauna, marine contemporary with the Hiramaki Fauna, has pinniped carnivores in its member, but they are, unfortunately, represented only by.fragmental materials. The mastodonts of the genus Gomphotherium is represented by newly-known materials, and they are not so small in size as the type specimen of the Gomphotherium annectens (Matsumoto).