Abstract
Abstract Cold-seep carbonate mounds containing Vesicomya (Calyptogena) kawamurai paleocommunity occur in massive siltstones of the Pliocene Tamari and Hijikata Formations, both deposited on the upper to middle slope of a forearc basin in the Sagara-Kakegawa area, central Japan. The shell-rich carbonate mounds vary from lenticular (2 m in diameter and 0.5 m in maximum thickness) to barrel-shaped (0.8 m in diameter and 1.5 m in length). One lenticular shelly concretion consisted of densely crowded vesicomyid shells lying parallel to bedding, and overlies a brecciated siltstone with dolomicritic cement. A barrel-shaped concretion contained abundant articulated valves of V. (C.) kawamurai in life orientation, and preserves a three-dimensional view of a chemosymbiotic habitat maintained over several generations of these large clams. In addition, the carbonate mounds contain various void spaces (open burrows and dissolved-shell molds) which are fringed by authigenic carbonates (splayed fibrous aragonites and do...
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