6:15 PM - 7:30 PM
[BPT24-P03] Cretaceous chemosynthetic communities in Japan
Keywords:chemosynthetic community, whale bone, sunken wood, hydrocarbon seep, hydrothermal vent, cold seep
The earliest occurrences of many molluscan genera, which are living in modern chemosynthetic ecosystem, were in the late Mesozoic. In addition, the oldest occurrences of chemosynthetic communities on decomposed vertebrate bones and sunken-drifted wood were in Cretaceous. Japanese Islands are located at junction of several continental and oceanic plates since hundreds of millions of years ago and provide many important material to establish evolutionary history of modern-type chemosynthetic ecosystems. Here I review Cretaceous chemosynthetic ecosystems with special focus on Japanese material.