Predation Dynamics in the Fossil Record
Summary
Predation dynamics in the fossil record encompass the study of predator–prey interactions preserved over geological time through physical traces such as drill holes, shell repair scars and crushing marks. These records allow reconstruction of ancient food webs, assessment of evolutionary arms races and quantification of ecological pressures acting on benthic communities. Over the past decades, trends in drilling frequency and shell repair have revealed latitudinal and depth gradients in predation intensity, while shifts in morphological defences document escalatory coevolution between predators and their prey. Intensification of predation during events such as the Mesozoic Marine Revolution reshaped marine ecosystems by driving innovations in infaunal lifestyles, burrowing behaviours and defensive shell ornamentation. More recent efforts have highlighted the uneven tempo of these changes across taxonomic groups, the influence of environmental factors such as oxygenation and substrate type, and the need to correct for taphonomic biases including time-averaging and preservational loss of interaction traces. Together, these insights underscore the role of predation as a primary agent of ecological restructuring and biotic turnover through deep time, with implications for understanding modern biodiversity patterns and resilience of marine communities to environmental change.
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Predation Dynamics in the Fossil Record publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in predation dynamics in the fossil record across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Drill hole: A circular or oval penetration in a shell, created by a drilling predator, preserved as a trace fossil indicating predation.
Predation trace: Any morphological mark on a fossil organism (e.g. holes, scars, crushing fractures) that records a predator–prey interaction.
Infaunalization: The transition of organisms from a surface-dwelling to a burrowing lifestyle within sediment, often as an evolutionary response to predation.
Time-averaging: The mixing of remains from different time periods within a single fossil assemblage, which can obscure temporal resolution of ecological interactions.
References
- Latitudinal and depth gradients in marine predation pressure. Global Ecology and Biogeography (2016).
- An asynchronous Mesozoic marine revolution: the Cenozoic intensification of predation on echinoids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2021).
- Accounting for uncertainty from zero inflation and overdispersion in paleoecological studies of predation using a hierarchical Bayesian framework. Paleobiology (2021).
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