Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum

Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum Vol. 50, No. 3 Research reports of the “Paleoparadoxiid Mizunami-Kamado specimen”

“Paleoparadoxiid Mizunami-Kamado specimen” is a well-preserved whole skeleton of paleoparadoxiid that was excavated from Kamado-cho, Mizunami City Gifu prefecture in June 2022. Each bone is preserved very well, and the bone and other fossils have plenty of information about the situation before they became fossilized. Therefore, this study records the positions of each body part of this specimen and other fossils preserved together with the specimen to discuss the taphonomy and the growth of bones of the specimen. A total of 119 bones were collected, including the skull, mandible, vertebrae, ribs, hindlimbs, and sternal bones of the specimen, but it lacks the forelimbs. The growth of these bones was almost stopped, which suggests the specimen is a mature individual. After comparison with other specimens of paleoparadoxiid, the specimen in this study turned out to be one of the most mature specimens of Paleoparadoxiidae. Fossil remains of molluscs, barnacles, decapods, sharks and plants were col-lected from around the specimen. Some barnacles and molluscs attached to some bones. The infor-mation of this specimen and other fossils suggest that the carcass drifted on the sea before going down to the sea bottom and took much time to deposit.