1989 年 1989 巻 37 号 p. 73-82
A new approach to taphonomic and paleoecologic reconstruction of benthic animal fossils, is proposed, based on the comparison of the orientation of living and fossil bivalves. This method enables us to reconstruct level of disturbance within the sediment profile of the ancient substrate. Preserved and disappeared paleoecologic information in the fossil assemblage can thus be distinguished. This method was applied to one of the common shallow-sea bivalve fossil assemblages, the shell bed of the late Pleistocene Kiyokawa Formation, Boso Peninsula, central Japan. The result reveals repeated erosion of sea-floor and resultant reworking of the shallow-burrowing bivalves. The fossil assemblage from the shell bed can be understood as a mixture of autochthonous deep burrowers and reworked, but indigenous assemblage of shallow burrowers.