Biogeographic studies of shallow-water animals from Japanese waters, with special reference to the Pacific and philippine Plates

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In January and Feburary, 1995, fish and invertebrates inhabiting shallow-waters around Chichi-jima in the Ogasawara Islands were collected with box- and cylinder-type dredge on board fishing boat and with hand-net during SCUBA diving. And also, in December 1995 and January 1996, the intensive collections and observations were made by several researchers, within the financial and climatical restriction, at the sea off Ishigaki-jima and Iriomote-jima, the Yaeyama Group in the southern Ryukyu Islands. Systematic studies on many groups are now in progress, the preliminary reports indicating the presence of many species new to science and also new to Japanese fauna. Comparisons between the faunae of various groups from the Ogasawara and Ryukyu Islands suggest that many shallow-water species not only the shore-fishes indicated by Springer (1982 : Smiths.Contri.Zool., 367) but also the benthic invertebrates are distributed along the Philippine and Pacific Plates. This may be reasonable because the oceanic currents are generally induced along the island chains and ridges formed by the impact of Plates. On the other hand, the complex bottom conditions accompnied with trench and trough along the island chains might lead to the species diversity possibly interpreted with the vicariance theory.