The Fossil Record of Drilling Predation on Bivalves and Gastropods

The fossil record yields abundant data on the interaction between drilling predators and their shelled prey. Predatory drill holes may date to the late Precambrian (Bengtson and Zhao, 1992) and have been reported from various Paleozoic assemblages (e.g., Sheehan and Lesperance, 1978; Smith et al., 1985; Conway Morris and Bengtson, 1994). Paleozoic drill holes have been reported primarily from brachiopods, although gastropods (Rohr, 1991) and bivalves (Kowalewski et al., 2000; Hoffmeister et al., 2001) also exhibit apparent predatory drill holes. In most cases, the identities of the Paleozoic drilling predators are unknown; platyceratid gastropods documented in association with drilled Paleozoic crinoids and blastoids appear to have been parasitic (Baumiller, 1990, 1996, 2001).