Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T05:20:58.834Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Borings in the shell of an Ordovician (Whiterockian) gastropod

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

David M. Rohr
David M. Rohr*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas 79832
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A single specimen of the platyceratacean gastropod Raphispira showing one complete and one incomplete, slightly elliptical borehole was recovered from the Antelope Valley Formation in central Nevada. Circular boreholes may be formed by a variety of causes, but they are most commonly attributed to the predators. In the Paleozoic the holes are most common in brachiopods, both calcareous and phosphatic. This is the oldest reported occurrence in a calcareous shell. In most instances, if a hard-bodied form is consumed by a carnivore, little recognizable evidence remains; therefore, predator boreholes are helpful in determining trophic relationships.

Type
Paleontological Notes
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , July 1991 , pp. 687 - 688
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ausich, W. I., and Gurrola, R. A. 1979. Two boring organisms in a Lower Mississippian community of southern Indiana. Journal of Paleontology, 53:335–344.Google Scholar
Bengtson, S. 1968. The problematic genus Mobergella from the Lower Cambrian of the Baltic area. Lethaia, 1:325–351.Google Scholar
Brunton, C. H. C., and Champion, C. 1974. A Lower Carboniferous brachiopod fauna from the Manifold Valley, Staffordshire. Palaeontology, 17:811–840.Google Scholar
Bucher, W. H. 1938. A shell-boring gastropod in a Dalmanella upper Cincinnatian age. American Journal of Science, 5th Series, 32:522–528.Google Scholar
Cameron, B. 1967. Oldest carnivorous gastropods borings, found in Trentonian (Middle Ordovician) brachiopods. Journal of Paleontology, 41:147–150.Google Scholar
Carriker, M. L., and Yochelson, E. L. 1968. Recent gastropod boreholes and Ordovician cylindrical borings. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 593B:B1–B26.Google Scholar
Chatterton, B. D. E., and Whitehead, H. L. 1987. Predatory borings in the inarticulate brachiopod Artiotreta from the Silurian of Oklahoma. Lethaia, 20:67–74.Google Scholar
Cooper, G. A. 1956. New Pennsylvanian brachiopods. Journal of Paleontology, 30:521–530.Google Scholar
Grant, R. E. 1965. Faunas and stratigraphy of the Snowy Range Formation (Upper Cambrian) in southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming. Geological Society of America Memoir 96, 164 p.Google Scholar
Grant, R. E. 1988. The family Cardiarinidae (late Paleozoic rhynchonellid Brachiopoda). Senkenbergia Lethaea, 69:121–135.Google Scholar
Liljedahl, L. 1985. Ecological aspects of a silicified bivalve fauna from the Silurian of Gotland. Lethaia, 18:53–66.Google Scholar
Martinsson, A. 1962. Ostracodes of the family Beyrichiidae from the Silurian of Gotland. Publications from Palaeontological Institution of University of Uppsala 41, 369 p.Google Scholar
Miller, R. H., and Sundberg, F. A. 1984. Boring Late Cambrian organisms. Lethaia, 17:185–190.Google Scholar
Richards, R. P., and Shabica, C. W. 1969. Cylindrical living burrows in Ordovician dalmanellid brachiopod beds. Journal of Paleontology, 43:838–841.Google Scholar
Rohr, D. M. 1976. Silurian predator borings in the brachiopod Dicaelosia from the Canadian Arctic. Journal of Paleontology, 50:1175–1179.Google Scholar
Ross, R. J. Jr. 1970. Ordovician brachiopods, trilobites, and stratigraphy in eastern and central Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 639, 103 p.Google Scholar
Sheehan, P. M., and Lesperance, P. 1978. Effects of predation on the population dynamics of a Devonian brachiopod. Journal of Paleontology, 52:812–817.Google Scholar
Smith, S. A., Thayer, C. W., and Brett, C. W. 1985. Predation in the Paleozoic: gastropod-like drill holes in Devonian brachiopods. Science, 230:1033–1035.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watkins, R. 1974. Carboniferous brachiopods from northern California. Journal of Paleontology, 48:304–325.Google Scholar