Abstract
An unusually low-diversity shallow marine benthic community in a siliciclastic setting was identified and described from the Lower Triassic (Smithian) Hiraiso Formation (Southern Kitakami Mountains, northeast Japan). The Hiraiso fauna includes bivalve species of widespread genera, such as Eumorphotis, Entolium, Bakevellia (Maizuria), Unionites, Neoschizodus, and the oldest record of the crinoid genus Holocrinus. Facies analysis enabled reconstruction of an environmental gradient ranging through storm-dominated sedimentary settings of various depths, thus allowing us to estimate the probable habitats of the shelly fossil assemblage. Regional comparison of contemporaneous shallow marine fossil localities (i.e., Southern Primorye, Maizuru Terrane, and Chichibu Terrane) demonstrated particularly striking similarity among the shallow marine benthic communities of these siliciclastic settings. We thus infer no substantial ecological recovery among these tropical shallow marine benthic communities in Smithian time.
