The Hakobuchi Formation is a

geological formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics (lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock expo ...

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is the uppermost unit of the

Yezo Group The Yezo Group is a stratigraphic group in Hokkaido, Japan and Sakhalin, Russia which is primarily Late Cretaceous in age (Aptian to Earliest Paleocene). It is exposed as roughly north–south trending belt extending 1,500 kilometres through centr ...

, being early

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

in age. It consists of bioturbated

glauconitic Glauconite is an iron potassium phyllosilicate (mica group) mineral of characteristic green color which is very friable and has very low weathering resistance. It crystallizes with a monoclinic geometry. Its name is derived from the Greek () m ...

sandstones Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains, cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed o ...

siltstones Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed ...

and conglomerates with coaly

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

and minor

tuffite Tuffite is a tuff containing both pyroclastic and detrital materials, but predominantly pyroclasts. According to the IUGS definition, tuffite contains 75% to 25% volcanic (epiclastic) material. There are several classifications that define tuffi ...

. It was deposited in a

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

setting. It is noted for its fossil content with the invertebrates mainly consisting of bivalves and ammonites. With vertebrates including the

mosasaur Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Ancient Greek, Greek ' meaning 'lizard') are an extinct group of large aquatic reptiles within the family Mosasauridae that lived during the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains wer ...

s '' Mosasaurus hobetsuensis'' and '' Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans''. As well the sea turtle '' Mesodermochelys''Hirayama R, Chitoku T. (1996). "Family Dermochelyidae (Superfamily Chelonioidea) from the Upper Cretaceous of North Japan". ''Transactions and proceedings of the Palaeontological Society of Japan. New series'' 184: 597-622
online, retrieved 28 July 2008
/ref> and the

hadrosaurid Hadrosaurids (), also hadrosaurs or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod fami ...

dinosaur ''

Kamuysaurus ''Kamuysaurus'' is a genus of herbivorous edmontosaurin saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur from Late Cretaceous Maastrichtian marine deposits of the Yezo Group ( Hakobuchi Formation) in the Hobetsu area near the town of Mukawa, Hokkaido in Japa ...

Fossil content

Dinosaurs

Ornithopods

Mosasaurs

Turtles

Fish

Cartilaginous Fish

Molluscs

Bivalves

Cephalopods

Gastropods

Paleoflora

References