LATE CRETACEOUS GASTROPOD DRILLING INTENSITIES: DATA FROM THE MAASTRICHTIAN FOX HILLS FORMATION, WESTERN INTERIOR SEAWAY, USA

Abstract Drillholes interpreted as the products of gastropod predation have become the most widely applied proxy for predator-prey interactions in the fossil record. In a broader sense, they have also become accepted as reflecting the evolution of many aspects of predator-prey interactions; e.g., intensity, behavior, and efficiency. Because of the relative paucity of published studies, the generality of long-term trends revealed by recent compilations of drilling intensity data has not been widely tested. The present study examines predatory gastropod drilling intensity in bivalves from the late early to early late Maastrichtian Fox Hills Formation within the Western Interior Seaway (WIS). These data allow a new comparison to be made to drilling intensity values reported previously from coeval United States Coastal Plain collections. 6,910 valves and 4,343 articulated specimens representing 53 bivalve species were examined for evidence of drilling predation. Although the approach employed was designed to maximize the number of drillholes recorded, only 236 unequivocal drillholes, 20 possible drillholes, 11 partial drillholes, and a single specimen with multiple drillholes were found, resulting in a maximum drilling intensity of 3.3%. These drillholes are thought to have been largely produced by naticids, which are abundant in these deposits. When compared to other published studies of Maastrichtian gastropod drilling, these data document that drilling intensities in the latest Cretaceous varied considerably both spatially and temporally, and that the WIS record provides a lower baseline for Cretaceous drilling than that derived from coeval Coastal Plain localities.

[1]  P. Harries,et al.  High-resolution approaches in stratigraphic paleontology , 2008 .

[2]  N. Landman,et al.  Variation in Adult Size of Scaphitid Ammonites from the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale and Fox Hills Formation , 2008 .

[3]  B. Valkenburgh,et al.  The Fossil Record of Predation , 2007 .

[4]  D. Harwood,et al.  Evidence for marine influence on a low-gradient coastal plain: Ichnology and invertebrate paleontology of the lower Tongue River Member (Fort Union Formation, middle Paleocene), western Williston Basin, U.S.A. , 2005 .

[5]  G. Vermeij,et al.  Reduced Competition and Altered Feeding Behavior Among Marine Snails After a Mass Extinction , 2004, Science.

[6]  G. Ludvigson,et al.  Evidence for increased latent heat transport during the Cretaceous (Albian) greenhouse warming , 2004 .

[7]  T. Baumiller,et al.  A case of intense predatory drilling of brachiopods from the Middle Miocene of southeastern Poland , 2004 .

[8]  P. Harries,et al.  General trends in predation and parasitism upon inoceramids , 2003 .

[9]  L. R. Leighton.  Morphological response of prey to drilling predation in the Middle Devonian , 2003 .

[10]  E. Harper.  Assessing the importance of drilling predation over the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic , 2003 .

[11]  M. Kowalewski,et al.  Sieves and Fossils: Effects of Mesh Size on Paleontological Patterns , 2003 .

[12]  P. Harries,et al.  THE FIRST EVIDENCE OF DRILLING PREDATION IN INOCERAMIDS , 2003 .

[13]  T. Kase,et al.  Mystery of naticid predation history solved: Evidence from a “living fossil” species , 2003 .

[14]  J. Sepkoski,et al.  A compendium of fossil marine animal genera , 2002 .

[15]  J. Kirkland,et al.  Brackish and marine mollusks of the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota: Evidence for a persisting Cretaceous seaway , 2002 .

[16]  P. Harries,et al.  Role of predation and parasitism in the extinction of the inoceramid bivalves: an evaluation , 2002 .

[17]  M. Kowalewski,et al.  Spatial and Environmental Variation in the Fossil Record of Drilling Predation: A Case Study from the Miocene of Central Europe , 2001 .

[18]  A. Gale,et al.  The last Maastrichtian ammonites from the Brazos River sections in Falls County, Texas , 2001 .

[19]  G. Vermeij,et al.  Delayed herbivory and the assembly of marine benthic ecosystems , 2000, Paleobiology.

[20]  L. R. Leighton.  Possible latitudinal predation gradient in middle Paleozoic oceans , 1999 .

[21]  F. T. Fürsich,et al.  A fossil record full of holes: The Phanerozoic history of drilling predation , 1998 .

[22]  N. Landman,et al.  Marine connections in North America during the late Maastrichtian: palaeogeographic and palaeobiogeographic significance ofJeletzkytes nebrascensisZone cephalopod fauna from the Elk Butte Member of the Pierre Shale, SE South Dakota and NE Nebraska , 1998 .

[23]  P. Harries,et al.  Oxygen and carbon isotopic "dissection" of Baculites compressus (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) from the Pierre Shale (Upper Campanian) of South Dakota: Implications for paleoenvironmental reconstructions , 1998 .

[24]  E. Harper,et al.  Taphonomy and the Mesozoic marine revolution; preservation state masks the importance of boring predators , 1998 .

[25]  Claudia C. Johnson,et al.  MIDDLE CRETACEOUS REEF COLLAPSE LINKED TO OCEAN HEAT TRANSPORT , 1996 .

[26]  M. Hart.  Biotic Recovery from Mass Extinction Events , 1996 .

[27]  T. Hansen,et al.  Recovery of the naticid gastropod predator-prey system from the Cretaceous-Tertiary and Eocene-Oligocene extinctions , 1996, Geological Society, London, Special Publications.

[28]  T. Hansen,et al.  Spatial Variation of Naticid Gastropod Predation in the Eocene of North-America , 1995 .

[29]  T. Hansen,et al.  Evolution of the naticid gastropod predator-prey system: an evaluation of the hypothesis of escalation , 1993 .

[30]  P. Harries,et al.  Molluscan biostratigraphy of the Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, North America , 1993 .

[31]  N. Landman,et al.  Scaphitid ammonites of the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Fox Hills Formation in South Dakota and Wyoming. Bulletin of the AMNH ; no. 215 , 1993 .

[32]  R. Nehm,et al.  A comparative study of naticid gastropod predation on Varicorbula caloosae and Chione cancellata, Plio-Pleistocene of Florida, U.S.A. , 1991 .

[33]  B. Morton,et al.  Alternative predation tactics of a tropical naticid gastropod , 1987 .

[34]  R. Reyment,et al.  Predation by boring gastropods on Late Cretaceous and Early Palaeocene ostracods , 1987 .

[35]  G. Vermeij.  Evolution and Escalation , 1987 .

[36]  G. Vermeij.  Evolution and Escalation: An Ecological History of Life , 1987 .

[37]  L. Saul,et al.  Gyrodiform gastropods from the Pacific Coast Cretaceous and Paleocene , 1987, Journal of Paleontology.

[38]  J. Taylor,et al.  Predatory gastropods and their activities in the Blackdown Greensand (Albian) of England , 1983 .

[39]  James F. Kitchell,et al.  Prey Selection by naticid gastropods: experimental tests and application to the fossil record , 1981, Paleobiology.

[40]  G. Vermeij,et al.  Predation in time and space: drilling in the gastropod Turritella , 1978, Paleobiology.

[41]  W. Sliter.  Predation on benthic foraminifers , 1971 .

[42]  Ian G Spenden.  The type Fox Hills Formation, Cretaceous (Maestrichtian), South Dakota. Part 2. Systematics of the Bivalvia , 1970 .

[43]  W. T. Pecora,et al.  Recent gastropod boreholes and Ordovician cylindrical borings , 1968 .

[44]  W. J. Mapel,et al.  Stratigraphy and structure of the northern and western flanks of the Black Hills uplift, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota , 1964 .

[45]  N. F. Sohl.  Neogastropoda, Opisthobranchia, and Basommatophora from the Ripley, Owl Creek, and Prairie Bluff Formations , 1964 .