熱帶性棘皮動物の最近における北上例

概要

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A number of tropical echinoderms have been known to occur in southern Japan, especially around the coast of Kii Peninsula. Among them, some 10 echinoderms which had previously been recorded only from coral reefs or shallow seas of the tropical Indo-Malayan region northerly to the Riukyu or Bonin Islands. They are Protoreaster nodosus (LINNE), Ferdina ocellata H. L. CLARK d Acanthaster planci (LINNE)[ASTEROIDEA], Phyllacanthus dubius (BRANDT), Salmacis bicolor (L.AGASSIZ), Toxopneustes elegans DODERLEIN, Heterocentrotus mamillatus (LINNE), Fchinoneus cyclostomus LESKE and Metalia spatagus (LINNE)[ECHINOIDEA], and Phyrella fragilis (OSHIMA)[HOLOTHUROIDEA]. During recent years, the occurrence of these remarkable tropical echinoderms in southern Japan (exceptionally Phyllacanthus only in the south of Hokkaido) has been confirmed. Although they were recorded only either once or twice, their actual occurrence in the warm temperate waters of Japan proper may be significant, because the surviving or spawning threshold temperature of these littoral echinoderms parallels the minimal thermal tolerance of reef corals. In this connection it is interesting that these littoral echinoderms are mostly found on deeper basin (from 4m to 50m) in Japanese waters.
社団法人日本動物学会の論文
1962-03-15