Vermeij Crushing Analysis: A new old technique for estimating crushing predation in gastropod assemblages

Stafford, Emily S.; Leighton, Lindsey R.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.02.026

Cited by 28 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Peel-like damage is unlikely to be attributable to taphonomic factors (Stafford and Leighton, 2011), whereas other types of damage may be ascribed with less certainty to predation. Aperture damage frequently occurs in both unrepaired and repaired states, allowing assessment of the relative efficiencies of predator attacks and prey defenses.…”

Section: Crushing Damage To Gastropod Shellsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Caedichnus, a New Ichnogenus Representing Predatory Attack on the Gastropod Shell Aperture

Stafford

Dietl

Gingras

et al. 2015

Ichnos

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Predatory traces, in which the tracemaker has damaged the prey animal's skeleton to kill and consume it, have a deep fossil history and have received much scientific attention. Several types of predatory traces have been assigned to ichnotaxa, but one of the most studied predatory traces, the wedge-shaped excision produced as a result of attacks mainly by crustaceans on the apertures of gastropod shells, has yet to be described as an ichnotaxon. We propose the ichnogenus Caedichnus to describe the shell damage produced by aperture peeling behavior. Caedichnus is produced by predators that are unable to crush their prey's shells outright. Depending on the predator's peeling ability and the prey's withdrawal depth within the shell, the trace can extend through several whorls of the shell. Aperture peel attacks may fail, allowing such damage to be repaired by surviving gastropods. Thus, the types of attacks that produce Caedichnus may exert selective pressure on prey to evolve betterdefended shells (in the case of gastropods) or to inhabit betterdefended shells (in the case of hermit crabs). The identification of these trace fossils will enhance our understanding of how predation influences the morphological, and even behavioral, evolution of prey organisms.

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Section: Crushing Damage To Gastropod Shellsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Caedichnus, a New Ichnogenus Representing Predatory Attack on the Gastropod Shell Aperture

Stafford

Dietl

Gingras

et al. 2015

Ichnos

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…This was determined based on the length of the scar/repair as proportion of body length ( Fig. 2; see also Mondal et al, 2010a;Mondal and Herbert, 2012;Mondal et al, in press), and the categorization is broadly comparable to Stafford and Leighton's (2011) intensity-based categories of shell breaks in gastropods which include shallow, deep, and extensive aperture chips (see their fig. 5).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, for the calculation of breaks, we have only used the undrilled shells from the samples as drilled shells represent successful predation by drilling gastropods. Given the likelihood that these individuals were killed by the predators that penetrated the shells, any breaks found on these were considered abiotic in origin and unrelated to the lethal predation-induced breaks examined here (Vermeij, 1982;Stafford and Leighton, 2011;Mondal et al, 2014a). Therefore, these drilled shells were excluded from the shell-break calculations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As there is no evidence to suggest that drilled shells underwent a different taphonomic history than the other valves, the relative frequency of abiotic breaks on the undrilled shells was used as a proxy to correct for abiotic breakage on the undrilled specimens (Vermeij, 1982;Stafford and Leighton, 2011;see Mondal et al, 2014a for a more detailed discussion of this approach). This correction should provide a more reliable intensity which more closely resembles the true number of biotically produced scars, i.e., T breaks (on UD ⁎ ) in Table 1.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas successful attacks -those which lead to a prey's demise and consumption -leave no evidence of repair, unsuccessful (i.e., non-/sub-lethal) attacks often lead to skeletal damage in various prey types, including molluscs, that may be repaired and then preserved as scars on the shell/skeleton. Quantification of these successful and unsuccessful attacks using various approaches, such as estimated crushing mortality (ECM; Vermeij, 1982;Stafford and Leighton, 2011;Mondal et al, 2014a) and repair frequency (RF; Dietl, 2001, 2003), in tandem, can effectively identify temporal changes in predation pressure (Mondal et al, 2014a). However, as they are typically used individually, these metrics offer relatively limited and often biased insights into aspects of predatory behavior, including site selectivity and magnitude of attacks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Temporal patterns in successful and unsuccessful shell-breaking predatory attack strategies on Varicorbula in the Plio-Pleistocene of Florida

Mondal

Harries

2015

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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Repair scars preserve decadal‐scale patterns of predation intensity despite short‐term ecological disturbances

Tyler

Molinaro

Mendonca

et al. 2019

Aquatic Conservation

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Recent ecological disturbances have dramatically altered the composition of rocky intertidal Pacific coast communities of North America, particularly top invertebrate predators. Predation is an important regulatory force on intertidal gastropod communities, and the depletion or loss of predators is therefore likely to have a considerable community‐wide short‐term impact. However, assessing the magnitude and nature of the resulting ecological changes may be problematic in the absence of data recording pre‐disturbance conditions. Here, the effectiveness of traces of unsuccessful crab predation on gastropod shells at providing a long‐term, decadal record of predation intensity in Barkley Sound (Vancouver Island, British Columbia) was evaluated subsequent to multiple large‐scale ecological disturbances, including sea star wasting disease, abnormally high sea surface temperatures, and harmful algal blooms. The frequency of failed crab attacks recorded by repair scars on six populations of the intertidal gastropod Tegula funebralis were surveyed to compare spatial patterns in predation intensity before and after disturbance (2013 and 2015 respectively). The repair frequency gradient observed in 2013 was also recorded by repair scars in 2015 (Spearman's ρ = 1, P = 0.002), and repair frequency was not affected by gastropod size in either 2013 (Spearman's ρ = 0.14, P = 0.80) or 2015 (Spearman's ρ = 0.66, P = 0.18). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that repair frequency provides decadal records of predation intensity and may be effective to establish persistent levels of predation intensity prior to disturbances in rocky intertidal habitats.

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Vermeij Crushing Analysis: A new old technique for estimating crushing predation in gastropod assemblages

Cited by 28 publications

References 68 publications

Caedichnus, a New Ichnogenus Representing Predatory Attack on the Gastropod Shell Aperture

Caedichnus, a New Ichnogenus Representing Predatory Attack on the Gastropod Shell Aperture

Temporal patterns in successful and unsuccessful shell-breaking predatory attack strategies on Varicorbula in the Plio-Pleistocene of Florida

Repair scars preserve decadal‐scale patterns of predation intensity despite short‐term ecological disturbances

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