Conservation palaeontology: protecting future biodiversity by past information

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24340128
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Stratigraphy/Paleontology
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: CHIBA Satoshi 東北大学, 東北アジア研究センター, 教授 (10236812)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MAKINO Wataru 東北大学, 大学院生命科学研究科, 助教 (90372309)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 陸産貝類 / 化石 / 群集 / 気候変動 / 保全 / 絶滅

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Temporal changes in environmental condition and its impacts on community were estimated by investigating fossil and modern land snail assemblages on the Ogasawara and Ryukyu Islands. The results of stable isotope analyses and morphological analyses suggest that habitat shift from wet to dry condition occurred at the end of the last ice age (ca. 10ka), and it caused sSerious extinction and rapid changes of species composition. On the Ogasawara Islands, extinction of land snails occurred due to large changes in vegetation after 300 years ago when first human immigration occurred. These suggest that habitat of these islands were formerly more moist than the present condition, and land snail species adapted to wet habitat were domminated in the community in the past. These information would be crucial for conservation plan for these snails.

Free Research Field

古生物学