Predation in the Ordovician and Silurian of Baltica

Abstract

Signs of predation appear in the Middle Ordovician of Baltica. Shell repair dominates over the predatory borings in the Ordovician and Silurian. Predators attacked molluscs, brachiopods and tentaculitoids in the Ordovician and molluscs, tentaculitoids, brachiopods and ostracods in the Silurian. There is an increase in the number of prey species in the Late Ordovician, which could be related to the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Molluscs are the favourite prey taxon in the Ordovician, but in the Silurian, molluscs became less dominant as the prey. This is probably not an artefact of preservation as Ordovician and Silurian molluscs are equally well preserved.

Keywords:

• Predators
• prey
• molluscs
• brachiopods
• biological interactions
• early Palaeozoic

Acknowledgements

This paper is a contribution to IGCP 591 ‘The Early to Middle Palaeozoic Revolution’. I am grateful to C. E. Brett and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive reviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support to O.V. was provided by the Palaeontological Association Research Grant, Sepkoski Grant (Paleontological Society); Estonian Research Council projects ETF9064 and IUT20-34.