Abstract Pre-Cenozoic rocks of the Japanese islands are largely composed of latest Palaeozoic to Cretaceous accretionary complexes and Cretaceous granitic intrusives. Exposures of older rocks are restricted to a limited number of narrow terranes, notably the Hida, Oeyama and Hida Gaien belts (Inner Zone of SW Japan), the Kurosegawa Belt (Outer Zone of SW Japan) and the South Kitakami Belt (NE Japan). In these belts, early Palaeozoic basement rocks are typically overlain by a cover of middle Palaeozoic to Mesozoic shelf facies strata. This chapter describes these basement inliers and their cover, grouping them under four subheadings: Hida, Oeyama, Hida Gaien and South Kitakami/Kurosegawa belts. Although opinions are varied among authors whether the Unazuki Schist should be placed in the Hida Belt (TT) or in the Hida Gaien Belt (KT & NM) sections, this chapter will describe the Unazuki Schist in the Hida Belt section.

Abstract We describe a new elasmobranch fauna from the lower part of the Khlong Min Formation in Thailand. The fauna includes Hybodus sp., Asteracanthus sp., Lonchidion reesunderwoodi sp. nov., Belemnobatis aominensis sp. nov., and possibly a second species of Belemnobatis. This fauna supports a Bathonian–Callovian age for the Khlong Min Formation, and suggests a close taxonomic relationship between the Middle Jurassic elasmobranch faunas of Europe and Thailand. The presence of a monolayered enameloid in Belemnobatis aominensis sp. nov. and other primitive batoids is interpreted as the retention of a primitive character for neoselachians, which would suggest a divergence time between the batoids and the rest of the neoselachian sharks as early as the Carboniferous–Permian boundary.