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Borers and encrusters as indicators of the presence of hermit crabs in Antarctic Eocene gastropods shells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

Silvio Casadio ,
Ana Parras ,
Miguel Griffin  and
Sergio Marenssi
Silvio Casadio*
Affiliation:
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UNLPam & CONICET, Uruguay 151, 6300 Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina
Ana Parras
Affiliation:
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UNLPam & CONICET, Uruguay 151, 6300 Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina
Miguel Griffin
Affiliation:
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UNLPam & CONICET, Uruguay 151, 6300 Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina
Sergio Marenssi
Affiliation:
Instituto Antártico Argentino, Cerrito 1248, 1010 Buenos Aires, Argentina; Universidad de Buenos Aires & CONICET, Argentina
*
*[email protected]
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Abstract

The community of encrusting and boring organisms developed on shells of the gastropod Antarctodarwinella ellioti from the lower section of the La Meseta Formation (Eocene) exposed on Seymour (Marambio) Island, Antarctic Peninsula, allows inference that the shells were inhabited by hermit crabs. A Chi-square Independence Test revealed that the community - dominated by polychaetes and bryozoans - shows preference for the aperture interior area of the shell. A subsequent Cochran Q Test indicated that the differences in frequency of encrusting and boring organisms as counted on the different interior sectors of the aperture were statistically significant. Thus, polychaetes, boring bryozoans, and encrusting bryozoans, do not show the same frequency in each interior sector of the aperture; they are more frequent on the columella (P < 0.0001, P < 0.01 and P < 0.001 respectively). Encrusting bryozoans also appear to show a preference - albeit not as high as on the columella - for the outer lip. This community of boring and encrusting organisms and their distribution on the shell confirms that the shells were inhabited by hermit crabs. The community is similar to that described in Recent hermitted shells from mid-latitude temperate water environments, suggesting that such communities were already established in the Eocene.

Keywords

hermitted shellsLa Meseta FormationPagurideaSeymour Islandtaphonomy
Type
Life Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 297 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2007

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