Tadahiro Ikeda

Abstract The modern and Late Pleistocene terrestrial fauna of Miyako Jima and adjacent islands (the Miyako Islands) in the southern Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan, includes some endemic taxa or genetically unique populations that exclusively have closest allies in the more isolated Okinawa Jima and adjacent islands (the Okinawa Islands) than in the Yaeyama Islands, which are located southwest of the Miyako Islands with much narrower intervening straits. Those taxa or populations include representatives of lineages that have physiologically highly limited ability for over-sea dispersal and the Miyako Islands are currently separated from the Okinawa Islands by at least 300 km of open water; therefore, the formation of this phylogeographical pattern is perplexing. In this study, we review the late Cenozoic geology of the Miyako Islands, southern Okinawa Jima, the Okinawa–Miyako submarine plateau (OMSP; a plateau located between Okinawa Jima and Miyako Jima), and the Kerama gap, which is a depression between the OMSP and Okinawa Jima. We then consider the origin of the modern and Late Pleistocene terrestrial animals, including a number of non-volant vertebrates on the Miyako Islands. Finally, we propose a new hypothesis (the OMSP hypothesis) to explain the enigmatic composition of modern and Late Pleistocene terrestrial vertebrate fauna of the islands. Southern Okinawa Jima was uplifted and emerged after ca. 2 Ma and was temporarily connected to the OMSP, which is likely to have emerged earlier than southern Okinawa Jima, to form a large island extending from Okinawa Jima to the Miyako Islands with a NE–SW direction of ~ 400 km. Subsequently, Okinawa Jima became separated from the OMSP when the Ryukyu Group—which is composed of Quaternary reef and associated fore-reef and shelf deposits—began to accumulate around the island at 1.7–1.4 Ma. During the interval from 2.0 to 1.7–1.4 Ma, numerous terrestrial animals, including flightless vertebrates, extended their distribution to the OMSP. Although the Miyako Islands repeatedly underwent complete submergence during deposition of the main part of the Ryukyu Group (1.25–0.4 Ma), they were uplifted and emerged to become a land area after ca. 0.4 Ma. In contrast, the OMSP subsided after ca. 0.4 Ma and was almost completely submerged after 0.27 Ma. During ca. 0.4–0.27 Ma, terrestrial animals migrated from the OMSP to the Miyako Islands.

We investigated the environmental conditions that prevailed in continental ecosystems recorded in sedimentary deposits of Japan during the Cretaceous through the analysis of oxygen and carbon isotope compositions phosphate (delta O-18(p)) and apatite-bound carbonate (delta O-18(c) and delta C-13(c)) of vertebrate teeth and bones. Local surface water delta O-18(w) values were calculated using known phosphate-water isotope fractionation equations. Anomalously low delta O-18(w) values of local waters strongly suggest a significant contribution of high-altitude precipitation from nearby mountains to local surface waters. Mean air temperatures were estimated using a global meteoric water delta O-18(mw) value - Mean Annual Air Temperature relationship, and compared to surface water temperatures estimated from fish apatite delta O-18(p) values. Local mean annual precipitations (MAP) were estimated using the known relationship existing between MAP and C3 plant delta C-13(p) value, the latter being calculated using apatite-diet C-13 enrichment applied to plant-eating sauropod and ornithopod dinosaur delta C-13(c) values. Reconstructed environmental conditions suggest that climate changed from cool temperate to warm temperate, being relatively cold and dry during the Late Hauterivian and Barremian to warmer and seasonally more humid during the Aptian and Albian, and even warmer during the Cenomanian-Coniacian. Proposed thermal evolution during the Early Cretaceous is compatible with the absence of thermophilic taxa such as crocodylomorphs before the Aptian in the fossil record of Japan.

Asian hesperornithiforms are extremely rare in contrast to North American records; thus, their diversity in Asia during the Cretaceous is unclear. Maastrichtian hesperornithiform materials have been reported from both fluvial and marine deposits in North America but only from fluvial deposits in Asia. Asian hesperornithiforms from Maastrichtian deposits have been considered as freshwater taxa because of their occurrence from fluvial sediments and their histological features. Here, we report the first hesperornithiform record from marine Maastrichtian deposits in Asia. It is represented by an isolated left tibiotarsus from the inter-arc basin deposit of the Kita-ama Formation (lower Maastrichtian), Izumi Group of southwest Japan. It has a shallow tibial incision, fibular crest extending to the mid shaft, and laterally angled lateral articular surface. Although its phylogenetic position within Hesperornithiformes is ambiguous, these characters are similar to non-hesperornithid hesperornithiforms. Unossifled proximal and distal epiphyses indicate that this individual was immature. A remarkably thick cortical area of the tibiotarsus suggests that this hesperornithiform was a sea-dwelling bird and that the habitat of this group during the Maastrichtian extended to both terrestrial and marine environments in Asia and North America. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We here describe a new Early Cretaceous (early Albian) eutherian mammal, Sasayamamylos kawaii gen. et sp. nov., from the ‘Lower Formation’ of the Sasayama Group, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Sasayamamylos kawaii is characterized by a robust dentary, a distinct angle on the ventral margin of the dentary at the posterior end of the mandibular symphysis, a lower dental formula of 3–4 : 1 : 4 : 3, a robust lower canine, a non-molariform lower ultimate premolar, and a secondarily reduced entoconid on the molars. To date, S. kawaii is the earliest known eutherian mammal possessing only four premolars, which demonstrates that the reduction in the premolar count in eutherians started in the late Early Cretaceous. The occurrence of S. kawaii implies that the relatively rapid diversification of eutherians in the mid-Cretaceous had already started by the early Albian.