Abstract: Nearly horizontal bedding fractures are commonly developed in the oil and gas reservoirs of tight sandstone and shale in China. As the important reservoir space and seepage passage for tight sandstone and shale reservoirs, bedding fractures affect the enrichment, individual well deliverability and development effect of oil and gas in tight sandstone and shale. According to the systematical comparative analysis of cores, thin sections and scanning electron microscopic images, the bedding fractures in tight sandstone and shale have similar development characteristics, which are developed along bedding plane, and present the morphologies such as bending, intermittent, pinching out, branching and turning along with microlayer. Compared with tectonic fractures, the bedding fractures are highly developed, but are characterized with relatively small scale and relatively poor lateral continuity and connectivity, and some of them are filled with calcite, quartz, argillaceous or asphalt. In terms of geologic origin, the bedding fractures can be divided into three basic types, i.e., pressolution, shrinkage and abnormal high-pressure types. Specifically, the bedding fractures in tight sandstone reservoirs are mainly formed under compaction and pressolution and shrinkage in the sedimentary diagenetic process, while the formation of shale bedding fractures is primarily related to compaction and pressolution, shrinkage and abnormal high pressure. The development of bedding fractures is affected by factors such as laminated type, laminated number, laminated thickness, TOC content and pyrite content, while that of bedding fractures in tuff is also closely related to the content of rigid vitric fragments. Although dissolution and tectonic uplift and denudation are not the main mechanisms affecting the formation of bedding fractures, they have a great impact on the aperture, scale, lateral continuity and connectivity and development degree of bedding fractures.