Japanese Rice Frog Fejervarya kawamurai is Absent from Available Archaeological Faunal Assemblages of the Kinki District of Honshu, Japan

Abstract

Zooarchaeological studies of vertebrate remains from four lowland archaeological sites (consisting of 24 features) in the Kinki District, Honshu, have led to the reconstruction of certain components of local amphibian assemblages that existed in the past, ranging from a few centuries Before Common Era to the Eighth Century Common Era. However, the Japanese Rice Frog, Fejervarya kawamurai, a presently common and obligate lowland species with several biogeographic peculiarities, has been consistently absent from these reconstructions. The data presented here suggests that the major lowlands of this district (the Osaka and Wakayama plains and the Nara Basin) were devoid of this species until later times, and that the invasion was facilitated by human activities. This finding also supports a long-neglected view that the populations of this species in mainland Japan originated from an introduction.