Traces of cassid snails predation upon the echinoids from the Middle Miocene of Poland: Comments on Ceranka and Zlotnik (2003)

摘要

Small round holes in the tests of fossil echinoids present problems of interpretation, the most obvious questions being who did it and why? Both have been the cause of considerable conjecture by ichnologists and echinoderm palaeontologists. "Drill holes" described from the Miocene of Poland in the echinoid Echinocyamus linearis Capeder are classified within the ichnospecies Oichnus simplex Bromley. Contrary to the original analysis, the possibility remains that some of these holes were the result of eulimid parasitism rather than predation by juvenile cassids. If other, larger echinoids in the fauna suffered predation by adult cassids, then the available samples are probably too small for it to be recognised.