Record of Naticid Predation on Scaphopods (Mollusca) from the Latest Maastrichtian of Rajahmundry, India

ABSTRACT

Drilling predation provides a rare opportunity to study and quantify prey-predator interactions in the fossil record. Records of drilling predation on scaphopod mollusc are rare. Here, we report naticid drilling predation on scaphopods from a “Turritelline-dominated assemblage” (TDA) stratigraphically just below the K-Pg boundary sections in Rajahmundry, India, which was situated in the Southern Hemisphere during that time. Low drilling frequency was found in the present assemblage based on 248 specimens, which was similar to most of the Cretaceous values previously reported. Majority of the specimens of previous studies were reported from higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Our report extended the palaeobiogeography of naticid predation on scaphopods into the Southern Hemisphere. Size and site stereotypy of drillholes on the scaphopod shell suggested that predatory behavior of naticids was already highly evolved, but evidence of escalation was less clear in scaphopod prey.

KEYWORDS:

• Naticid drilling
• Scaphopod prey
• Low predation rate
• Latest Maastrichtian
• India

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the local people of Devarapalle and Duddukuru, Andhra Pradesh; to the staff of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), India in Rajahmundry; Management of the Soma quarry; T. K. Gangopadhyay, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, India, for help in the field. The authors are especially thankful to the late Dr. Amitava Kayal, ONGC. The authors thank reviewers, Patricia Kelley, Greg Dietl, and Ádiel Klompmáker for their thorough and insightful comments, which substantially improved the manuscript.

Funding

The first author (S.M.) acknowledges the grant for field work funded by UGC. S.B. also acknowledges the partial funds provided by DST and CAS, Department of Geological Sciences; UPE-II and DST-PURSE, Jadavpur University. P.G. acknowledges the funds provided by DST, India. S.S.D. also acknowledges Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, for providing a grant to pursue the research work.