Four box core samples containing many living individuals of an arcoid bivalve Limopsis tajimae Sowerby were collected at depths of about 280 m in the northeastern part of Suruga Bay, Central Japan. The bivalve was observed to lie on one valve, either right or left, just beneath the sediment surface. The posture is common in limpsoids and glycymerididis, and is considered to be adapted to efficient suspension-feeding for non-siphonate bivalves having equivalve, compressed sheel. The population density is high, ranging from 40 to 480 individuals/m^2 among these box cores. Cross-sectional observation on one of the core samples suggests that the large population of L. tajimae in Suruga Bay was formed very recently and most of the early inhabitants are still living. The similar fossil aggregations of L. tajimae are found in the deposit of ancient Suruga Bay, the Late Pleistocene Negoya Formation, Shizuoka Prefecture. Comparative observation indicates that the modern and ancient examples of dense aggregation of L. tajimae resemble each other in water depth, geomorphic feature, and other environmental settings.
View full abstract