Effect of durophagy on drilling predation: a case study of Cenozoic molluscs from North America

Abstract

Drilling predation represents one of the most widely studied biotic interactions preserved in the fossil record, and complete and incomplete drill holes have been commonly used to explore spatial and temporal patterns of this phenomenon. While such patterns are generally viewed solely in terms of the interactions between predator and prey, they might also be affected by extrinsic ecological factors. Recent experiments have demonstrated that in the presence of a secondary predator (crab), the incomplete drilling frequency increases indicating increasing abandonment of the prey, and drilling frequency decreases implying a decrease in successful attacks. Here, we tested whether the effect of secondary predators on drilling frequencies can be detected in the fossil record. Using fossil molluscs from six Plio-Pleistocene localities, we found that repair scar frequencies, a proxy for activity of durophagous predators, correlate directly with incomplete drill hole frequencies and inversely with complete drill hole frequencies. These results suggest that the activity and success of drilling predators is influenced not just by the prey, but also by secondary predators.

Drilling predation traces on recent limpets from northern Patagonia, Argentina

“…Predator-prey interactions constitute a major ecological process which affects individuals, populations and communities, and links various organisms within and across ecosystems (Kowalewski and Leighton, 2007). Studying predator-prey interactions in deep time also helps evaluate its effect on the diversity, evolution and distribution of a group (Paine, 1966;Vermeij, 1977Vermeij, , 1987Roy, 1996;Kelley and Hansen, 2003;Leighton and Aronowsky, 2003;Chattopadhyay and Baumiller, 2010;among others). Predator-prey systems involving drilling predation on mollusk shells are especially relevant for paleontologists because the evidence of predation can be analyzed quantitatively.…”

Oceanographic and biological influences on recruitment of benthic invertebrates to hard substrata on the Oregon shelf

“…Gastropods in genus Alia are drill predators (Chattopadhay and Baumiller, 2010), and A. gausapata has planktotrophic larvae (Reitzel et al, 2004).…”

Predatory evidence in the high-latitude cold-water gastropod Buccinanops deformis (King, 1832) from the Holocene littoral sand ridges, Argentina, SW Atlantic

“…The frequency of repaired scars is a commonly used indicator for durophagous predatory activities (Alexander and Dietl, 2003;Chattopadhyay and Baumiller, 2010;Klompmaker, 2011). The estimation of repaired shell frequency within an assemblage is a simple means to estimate the interaction between gastropods and their predators (Lindström and Peel, 2010), as it reflects the link between predator effectiveness and the prey's defenses.…”

“…Nevertheless, predation is one of the most difficult interspecific interactions to be estimated in the fossil record (Stuart and Greenstone, 1990), mainly because predators and prey are rarely found together (Molinaro et al, 2013). It is only possible to find direct evidence of predation on prey organisms possessing a biomineralized skeleton (Vermeij, 1987), whereas most predators either leave no trace or destroy the hard parts of their prey (Chattopadhyay and Baumiller, 2010). Predation on organisms protected by a hard skeleton is defined as durophagy (Aronson, 2001).…”

“…Information describing repair frequencies is scarce for both fossil and recent mollusks located at Boreal to arctic latitudes (Alexander and Dietl, 2003). Moreover, except for one report (Chattopadhyay and Baumiller, 2010), prey effectiveness has not been estimated for fossilized repaired gastropods.…”