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Predation in time and space: drilling in the gastropod Turritella

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Elizabeth C. Dudley
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, College Park, Md. 20742
Geerat J. Vermeij
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, College Park, Md. 20742

Abstract

The intensity of drilling predation was studied on samples of fossil and Recent species of Turritella, a soft-bottom mesogastropod mollusc. Our data and records in the literature show that the frequency of drilling has remained about the same from the Eocene to the present. There may have been less predation by drilling during the Late Cretaceous. Among living Turritella, there is a sharp increase in intensity of drilling predation from the temperate zones to the tropics. This latitudinal trend is paralleled by an equatorward increase in number of species of drilling gastropods. Strong spiral ribs of some Eocene, Miocene, and Recent species of Turritella confer protection against drilling, but the mechanism of this immunity remains unclear.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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