Aug 01 2022

Associate Professor SHIINO Yuta of the Faculty of Science received the 2021 Best Paper Award from the Palaeontological Society of Japan.

This award was given to the papers published in Paleontological Research, Vol. 24, No. 1 (2020) to Vol. 25, No. 4 (2021) as the most creative and excellent research papers. The paper proposes that disc-shaped brachiopods collected from the Permian (about 250 million years ago) strata distributed in Miyagi Prefecture are a new species and explains how they adapted to the muddy sea bottom. The burial process of the fossil shells and the adaptation capability of the new brachiopod species are thoroughly examined to reconstruct the paleoecology, and the exemplary aspect is evaluated as the Best Paper Award.

Comments from Associate Professor Shiino

Fifteen years ago when I was a graduate student, I gave up working on this research topic because it was very difficult for me, but MASUNAGA Masao (lead author), who completed the master's program at the graduate school in March 2020, has revisited and finished it perfectly within 2 years. I am very happy that the new species was accepted. Personally, I like the title of the paper starting with "Death" and the publication of beautifully prepared Fig. 13.

Award-winning treatise

「Death or living assemblage? The middle Permian discinid brachiopods in the Kamiyasse area, Southern Kitakami Mountains, northeastern Japan」
Published in: Paleontological Research, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 258–278, 2021

Related links

• Palaeontological Society of Japan
• ZooBank

Associate Professor Shiino (left) and lead author MASUNAGA Masao (right)

Type specimen (holotype) of the new species (Scientific name: Orbiculoidea verum Masunaga & Shiino 2021)