日本の化石タイプ標本データベースの概要とその活用に向けて(<特集>生物多様性と古生物学)

抄録

"The database of Japanese fossil type specimens described during the 20^<th> Century (Part 1-3)" includes some 14,900 type specimens of fossils belonging to plants and animals described mainly by Japanese workers before the turn of the 21^<st> Century. The first volume catalogued about one-third of those which are in the literature, second volume includes more than 5,700taxa, and the third one includes more than 4,000taxa. Each taxonomic entry is annotated with such data items as: 1) name of taxon together with its author name and date of publication, 2) name of publication in which a new taxon name is proposed, 3) designated category of type specimens such as Holotype, Paratype, Syntype and so on, together with their registered repository number (an asterisk is attached to those specimens whose actual presence in a given repository was ascertained), 4) type localities, appended whenever possible with their latitudes and longitudes, 5) stratigraphic units in which a given taxon occurred, 6) geologic age or series, and 7) remarks given in parentheses to denote such information as the most commonly used name for a given taxon, invalid or synonymous status of a given taxon as judged by the contemporary taxonomists, and so on. Based on these databases, we can describe species diversity in detail of each taxon. For example, the diversity of Cenozoic molluscs which attains a more than 4,500 species, may be mainly caused by variety of the paleobiogeography of the Japanese Islands which occupies from a tropical to subarctic realms. Moreover, it can be considered that diversification ecological niche, heterochronical evolution and vicariane biogeography are important factors from an evolutionary viewpoint.