Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum

Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum Vol. 52, No. 1

Neoberingius minamichitaensis sp. nov. is described from the upper Lower Miocene Yamami For-mation (Morozaki Group) in Utsumisanbi, Minamichita-cho, Chita-gun, Aichi Prefecture and Utsumi Formation (Morozaki Group) in Akanotani, Noma, Mihama-cho, Chita-gun, Aichi Prefecture. This species can be inferred to have lived on the muddy bottom of the bathyal zone. Neoberingius and its related genus Beringius fossils are rare, and this is the first report of their discovery in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan which is thought to represent the southern limit of Neoberingius fossils. It has been re-vealed that during the Early Miocene, the distribution of Neoberingius expanded from around Kam-chatka to the deep waters of present-day Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The discovery of this species is re-garded as crucial for understanding the migration, distribution, and evolution of this genus.