Some coniferous fossil woods from the Cretaceous of Korea

Thirteen silicified fossil woods were collected fromthe Cretaceous deposits of Haenam Basin and islands of Gwanmaeand Byeongpung, Jeollanam-do as well as from the CretaceousDadaepo Formation, Busan, Korea. Anatomical features of all ofthese specimens showed that they were coniferous woods. On thebasis of the detailed anatomical features they were identified asDadoxylon byeongpungense sp. nov., Cupressinoxylon uhangriensesp. nov., Taxodioxylon cf. nihongii Nishida et H. Nishida, Taxodiox-ylon albertense (Penhallow) Shimakura, and Mesembrioxylon sp.All of them, except Mesembrioxylon, are described for the firsttime from the Korean Peninsula. It should be noted that no dicot-yledonous wood has been found from this study. Generally thesampled horizons are considered as Upper Cretaceous with dino-saur footprint fossils. In Japan, the Upper Cretaceous sedimentsbear abundant dicotyledonous fossils. Therefore further studiesshould be needed to clarify the age of these horizons and the veg-etation in the ancient world with dinosaur. KCI Citation Count: 6