Past Biodiversity: Japanese Historical Monographs Document the Epibiotic Barnacles and Cold-Stunning Event of the Hawksbill Turtle Eretmochelys imbricata

Ryota Hayashi

doi:10.3389/fevo.2021.734415

Abstract

The historical monographs called “Honzou Gaku” present the first record of cold-stunning of a hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766) in the Echigo region of Japan during the Edo period (1600–1868), and the barnacles attached to the turtle were identified as Platylepas hexastylos (Fabricius, 1798). Analysis of this finding adds substantial knowledge to our understanding of the life history of the hawksbill turtles along the coast of Japan. As reported in this study, literature on the historical heritage of other animals or plants can also provide information about their past biodiversity.

Highlights

The hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766), is a specialized “sponge-eating” sea turtle that occupies a unique position in coral reef ecosystems
The northern limit of the hawksbill turtle breeding range was recorded in Amami Oshima Island, Kagoshima (Figure 2B, Mizuno, 2013), even though the northernmost coral reef is located on Iki Island (Figure 2C, the entrance to the Sea of Japan) and there are no coral reefs in the Sea of Japan (Yamano et al, 2001)
Local sea surface temperatures are too cold for them and cold-stunning events occur at the upper limits of their native habitat range

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766), is a specialized “sponge-eating” sea turtle that occupies a unique position in coral reef ecosystems. The migration routes and patterns of habitat utilization of hawksbill turtles are rather poorly known compared to other sea turtle species (Godley et al, 2008) Epibiotic organisms such as barnacles are useful to track hosts and understand their life history (Hayashi and Tsuji, 2008; Hayashi, 2009; Fuller et al, 2010), for example, fossil records of epibiotic barnacles presented the past migratory routs of extinct whales (e.g., Bianucci et al, 2006; Collareta et al, 2016; Buckeridge et al, 2019; Taylor et al, 2019). I present the historical records of a hawksbill turtle with epibiotic barnacles in “Honzou Gaku” monographs to elucidate the past life history of these organisms

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION