XVI International Botanical Congess

Bulk sieving of samples from the Ashizawa Formation, Futaba Group (lower Coniacian) of northeastern Honshu, Japan, has yielded a well-preserved plant mesofossils assemblage (the Kamikitaba mesofossil flora). The mesofossils are small, three-dimensional and charcoalified or lignitized and yield exquisite structural details when studied with scanning electron microscopy. The Kamikitaba assemblage contains well-preserved angiosperm flowers, fruits, seeds, leaf fragments and wood. Extant taxa that can be recognized provisionally include: Lauraceae, Hamamelidaceae, Fagaceae, Cornales, Combretaceae, and probably Ericales, Magnoliaceae, and Nymphaeales. The mesofossils assemblage comprises the first record of this style of fossil plant preservation from the Cretaceous of easten Asia, and provides a basis for comparison with similar mesofossils assemblages from eastern North America and Europe.