A fossil record full of holes: The Phanerozoic history of drilling predation

The evolutionary history of drilling predation, despite a long and rich fos sil record (Precambrian-Holocene), contains a 120 m.y. gap (Late Triassic-E arly Cretaceous), Drilled bivalve and brachiopod shells from Jurassic depos its of Hungary, India, and four localities documented in the literature ind icate that drillers may have existed continuously throughout the Mesozoic. They may have been descendants of Paleozoic predators, unknown Mesozoic car nivores, or precursors of modern drillers. A literature database suggests t hree major phases in the Phanerozoic history of drilling predators: (1) the Paleozoic phase (latest Precambrian-Carboniferous) dominated by rare to mo derately frequent drillings in brachiopods and sessile echinoderms; (2) the Mesozoic phase (Permian-Early Cretaceous) with very rare, or even facultat ive, drillers that had little impact on marine benthic communities, but nev ertheless may have been present continuously; and (3) the Cenozoic phase (L ate Cretaceous-Holocene) dominated by frequent gastropod drillings in mollu sks.