Predation on Recent Turritelline Gastropods from the Indian Subcontinent and Comparison with a Revised Global Database
TL;DR: The intensity of predation (both drilling and peeling) on Recent turritelline gastropods from the Indian subcontinent, which has been underrepresented in previous studies, is estimated.
Abstract: Traces of predation by drilling gastropods and peeling crabs provide important insights about predator-prey interaction in ecological as well as evolutionary times. Predation on turritelline gastropods, in this context, has been frequently discussed in literature. Here, we have estimated the intensity of predation (both drilling and peeling) on Recent turritelline gastropods from the Indian subcontinent, which has been underrepresented in previous studies. Our samples include our own collections from several Indian coasts as well as a vast collection which was locked in the archive of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in Kolkata for the past 150 years. It includes samples from different parts of the Indian subcontinent as well as from many other countries. Drilling frequency (DF) of Indian turritelline species is low compared to average values of global data. We suggest that this is mainly because most of the Indian species are larger (> 4 cm) than species living elsewhere. Smaller species show higher DF and lower values of peeling frequency. Size selectivity of drill holes shows both intra- and interspecific variation. Shell thickness and ornamentation appear to be antipredatory in nature.We have compared our results with a revised global database. Distribution of intensity of predation shows latitudinal variation where both drilling and peeling frequencies increase towards the tropics.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a new dataset of naticid drilling predations, involving 31,929 gastropod specimens, from the latest Maastrichtian Infratrappean bed in Rajahmundry, southern India.
Abstract: One of the important and well documented prey–predator interactions in the fossil record is drilling predation done by naticid gastropods which diversified during the Cretaceous. Although drilling frequencies showed fluctuating patterns, most of the previous studies argued that naticid drilling predation was less intense during the Cretaceous and the modern values were achieved since the Paleocene. We, here, present a new dataset of naticid drilling predations, involving 31,929 gastropod specimens, from the latest Maastrichtian Infratrappean bed in Rajahmundry, southern India. These specimens belonged to 40 species of 20 families, thus representing a spectacular gastropod diversity that was not known until recently from this region. We examined 5884 complete or near complete specimens to quantify naticid drilling predation on this assemblage. It appeared that drilling frequency was significantly higher from all previous Cretaceous values. This was true for both assemblage-level and lower taxon-level results. Along with high successful drilling and low unsuccessful drilling frequencies, site and size stereotypy of drillholes suggest that naticid predators were highly efficient, even in the Cretaceous. Predators were prey selective and there was poor correlation between relative abundance and drilling frequency of prey taxa. The present Maastrichtian assemblage underlies the K–T mass extinction level. Drilling frequency was zero in the straddler prey community in the Intertrappean bed found immediately above the K–T boundary. The absence of any drillhole in surviving prey taxa may be due to sudden reduction in abundance of escalated predators, although some prey taxa e.g., cerithiids continued. This emphasizes the role of mass extinction in disrupting predator–prey interaction. We conclude that naticid drilling-induced escalation was already established during the Cretaceous and the present find extends the paleobiogeography of naticid predation (which was previously reported from the western world) up to India.
31 citations
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TL;DR: It is shown that ribs are most effective against drilling predation for bivalves with moderately sized ribs, between which gastropods have difficulty siting drill holes.
Abstract: Predation is an important process in modern oceans and in the evolutionary history of marine ecosystems. Consequently, it has been hypothesized that shelled prey modified their ornamentation in response to predation. However, bivalve ornamentation has also been argued to be important in maintaining a stable life position in the sediment and in burrowing. To test whether concentric ribs were effective against drilling by carnivorous gastropods, we examined drill hole position and completeness for four Cenozoic bivalve species that differ in rib strength (Astarte radiata, A. goldfussi, Lirophora glyptocyma, and L. latilirata). The percentage of drill holes located between the ribs increases with increasing rib strength, whereas the percentage of drill holes on top of ribs decreases. This result suggests that gastropods select the drill hole site more effectively as rib strength increases, thereby saving time and energy, and that natural selection favors gastropods that select drill hole sites betwe...
27 citations
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TL;DR: Detailed quantitative analyses of the present study revealed that N. tigrina attacks opportunistically on all infaunal and epifaunal intertidal bivalve and gastropod prey taxa, indicating that the predator was highly efficient.
Abstract: Chandipur intertidal flat in eastern coast of India is a killing field. The vast stretch of intertidal habitat opens up during the low tide, and is monopolized by a single naticid species which preys extensively on intertidal taxa. The predator, Natica tigrina, wades through the soft sediments and ambushes on epi- or infaunal prey. There were reports on naticid subaerial hunting, where the workers made vivid observations, but only in few instances quantified different aspects of predation. Detailed quantitative analyses of the present study revealed that N. tigrina attacks opportunistically on all infaunal and epifaunal intertidal bivalve and gastropod prey taxa. Drilling frequencies ranged from 9.70% to 67.67% with no apparent relation with relative abundances of the taxa. High drilling frequency on conspecific predation perhaps suggested elimination of the potential competitor as well as a profitable prey. Behavioral data of predation, i.e., stereotypy of site and size of drillholes on prey shells and low prey effectiveness indicated that the predator was highly efficient.
24 citations
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TL;DR: The different aspects of confamilial predation from the Indian coasts were studied and showed that the predators in Chandipur were highly efficient as evident from high drilling frequency (DF), site stereotypy and low prey effectiveness.
Abstract: Although common, confamilial naticid predation intensity was not very high in the geological record. Here, we gathered modern confamilial predation data from the Indian coasts and showed that confamilial naticid predation on a naticid species, Natica gualteriana, is exceptionally high at Chandipur, one of our studied areas. We studied the different aspects of confamilial predation from the Indian coasts and showed that the predators in Chandipur were highly efficient as evident from high drilling frequency (DF), site stereotypy and low prey effectiveness. Unusually high DF on N. gualteriana may be attributed to its new arrival in Chandipur where it faced competitive elimination through predation by sympatric naticid predators. Reports of failed invasion are rare. Natica gualteriana is a small invader and therefore its invasion success is threatened by resident populations of large species that extensively drill on young individuals of N. gualteriana just to break the bottleneck of their own offspring from...
20 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, data compiled from previously published sources, supplemented by unpublished museum collections, document different aspects of naticid confamilial predation in a temporal-latitudinal context.
Abstract: Gastropod drilling predation in the fossil record is prevalent and has been documented by many workers; however, vivid documentation of confamilial naticid predation is poor. Here, data compiled from previously published sources, supplemented by unpublished museum collections, document different aspects of naticid confamilial predation (NCP) in a temporal-latitudinal context. Confamilial drilling frequency (DF) showed a Cretaceous low, a small rise to a stable plateau in the Eocene, followed by a peak in the Oligocene, and finally a drop to a stable level from the Miocene to the Holocene. The stepwise rise in DF is comparable with the overall history of drilling predation. However, the temporal increase in DF was visible only in the mid-latitudes, while in other latitudes, no temporal trend was observed. The frequency of failed attack has always been very low. In comparison, a decrease in prey effectiveness (PE) was observed in the Neogene relative to the Cretaceous and Paleocene–Eocene intervals. In case of site selectivity, either apertural or abapertural sites were targeted until the Oligocene, and subsequently became more random. Some of these trends may be biased based on insufficient site selectivity data as well as uneven sampling from different latitudes representing different time intervals. More data on quantification of predation intensities along with the behavioral aspects of NCP are required to properly document other aspects of this interaction.
15 citations
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References
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21 May 1987
TL;DR: Geerat Vermeij demonstrates that escalation--the process by which species adapt to, or are limited by, their enemies as the latter increase in ability to acquire and retain resources--has been a dominant theme in the history of life despite frequent episodes of extinction.
Abstract: Here is one biologist's interpretation of the chronology of life during the last six hundred million years of earth history: an extended essay that draws on the author's own data and a wide-ranging literature survey to discuss the nature and dynamics of evolutionary change in organisms and their biological surroundings. Geerat Vermeij demonstrates that escalation--the process by which species adapt to, or are limited by, their enemies as the latter increase in ability to acquire and retain resources--has been a dominant theme in the history of life despite frequent episodes of extinction.
967 citations
"Predation on Recent Turritelline Ga..." refers background in this paper
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TL;DR: The substantial increase of snail-shell sturdiness beginning in the Early Cretaceous has accompanied, and was perhaps in response to, the evolution of powerful, relatively small, shell-destroying predators such as teleosts, stomatopods, and decapod crustaceans.
Abstract: Tertiary and Recent marine gastropods include in their ranks a complement of mechanically sturdy forms unknown in earlier epochs. Open coiling, planispiral coiling, and umbilici detract from shell sturdiness, and were commoner among Paleozoic and Early Meso- zoic gastropods than among younger forms. Strong external sculpture, narrow elongate aper- tures, and apertural dentition promote resistance to crushing predation and are primarily as- sociated with post-Jurassic mesogastropods, neogastropods, and neritaceans. The ability to remodel the interior of the shell, developed primarily in gastropods with a non-nacreous shell structure, has contributed greatly to the acquisition of these antipredatory features. The substantial increase of snail-shell sturdiness beginning in the Early Cretaceous has accompanied, and was perhaps in response to, the evolution of powerful, relatively small, shell-destroying predators such as teleosts, stomatopods, and decapod crustaceans. A simul- taneous intensification of grazing, also involving skeletal destruction, brought with it other fundamental changes in benthic community structure in the Late Mesozoic, including a trend toward infaunalization and the disappearance or environmental restriction of sessile animals which cannot reattach once they are dislodged. The rise and diversification of angiosperms and the animals dependent on them for food coincides with these and other Mesozoic events in the marine benthos and plankton. The new predators and prey which evolved in conjunction with the Mesozoic reorganiza- tion persisted through episodes of extinction and biological crisis. Possibly, continental breakup and the wide extent of climatic belts during the Late Mesozoic contributed to the conditions favorable to the evolution of skeleton-destroying consumers. This tendency may have been exaggerated by an increase in shelled food supply resulting from the occupation of new adaptive zones by infaunal bivalves and by shell-inhabiting hermit crabs. Marine communities have not remained in equilibrium over their entire geological history. Biotic revolutions made certain modes of life obsolete and resulted in other adaptive zones becoming newly occupied.
873 citations
"Predation on Recent Turritelline Ga..." refers background in this paper
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Book•
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01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: With sales of well over one million copies in North America alone, the commercial success of Gould's books now matches their critical acclaim as mentioned in this paper, and The Panda's Thumb will introduce a new generation of readers to this unique writer, who has taken the art of the scientific essay to new heights.
Abstract: With sales of well over one million copies in North America alone, the commercial success of Gould's books now matches their critical acclaim. Reissued in a larger format, with a handsome new cover, The Panda's Thumb will introduce a new generation of readers to this unique writer, who has taken the art of the scientific essay to new heights.
424 citations
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TL;DR: Patterns in antipredatory selection from high to low latitudes and altitudes, from fresh to salt water, and from Paleozoic to Recent time, and accord with previous evidence and predictions are revealed.
Abstract: The theory of evolution by natural selection requires the recognition of aptations. A given genetic variant can be shown to have an advantage over another with respect to an individual's viability in a given environment if (1) some individuals in the population reproduce after an encounter with the agent of selection for which the variant is believed to be beneficial, and (2) the beneficial variant has a higher frequency among individuals which have survived encounters with the agent than among those which died as a result of the encounter or among those which did not encounter the agent. In the special case of evolution of antipredatory features, unsuccessful predation is a necessary condition. A literature survey of 60 predaceous species reveals that unsuccessful predation is widespread; only 19 of 100 prey species (19%) were attacked in one or more vulnerable size classes with an efficiency (measured after the prey was detected) of 90% or more. The nature and effectiveness of antipredatory defenses can...
366 citations
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