Fossil decapods from the Upper Quaternary in Shinjima Island in Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan, and description of a new species of ghost shrimp (Axiidea, Eucalliacidae).

Abstract

Five species of decapod crustaceans, including Calliax nishiki sp. nov. (Axiidea, Eucalliacidae) and Carcinoplax longimana (de Haan), are described from the upper part of the Moeshima Silt Bed (latest Pleistocene to Holocene: ca 13,000 to 8,000 cal BP). Ten decapods, including Laticallichirus grandis (Karasawa Goda) and Ebalia tuberculosa (A. Milne-Edwards) are described from the Moeshima Shell Bed (Holocene: ca 8,000 to 2,000 cal BP). Calliax nishiki is abundant and Carcinoplax longimana is common in the decapod assemblage of Moeshima Silt Bed. The new species of Calliax seems to have dispersed around the deep marine setting with a reducing environment. The decapod assemblage of the Moeshima Shell Bed is characterized by a predominance of L. grandis. The present record suggests that L. grandis is abundant under sandy and gravelly bottoms mixed with shells of the lower sublittoral to subtidal zones during the Quaternary.