Abstract
Paleontological research for the Late Pleistocene (the last glacial maximum in general) fossil association of birds of the Central and Southern Ryukyu islands, which consists of forty-four species included in 17 families in 11 orders, revealed that the recent aspect of avian endemics, inhabiting one island only, is in fact due to relict palaeoendemism (Le., they are remnant distributions, left over from the extirpations on other island / area populations). Also, the fossil distribution of Oriental birds indicates that the recent northern limit of the Oriental zoogeographical region, Hachisuka’s line between the Southern and Central Ryukyus, is an “artificial” boundary that does not account for the vanished distributions. The forests of the Amamis and “Yambaru” in Okinawa are very important ecological habitats because they are, already, the result of local extinctions from the native one. We must take their present condition into consideration for the preservation of unique ecological habitats.
