Drilling predation on Antarctic tusk shells: first records on Recent scaphopods from the Southern Hemisphere

Drillholes on shells are one of the few predation marks preserved in fossil molluscs, providing an opportunity to study and quantify predator-prey interactions in the palaeontological record. Among these, reports of drilling predation on scaphopods are rare, and such information from Antarctica is non-existent. We describe the finding of drillholes on scaphopods recovered from Recent mollusc assemblages between depths of 246.5 and 454.0 m in West Antarctica. The predation traces located in the middle sectors of two preyed shells belonging to Siphonodentalium dalli and Dentalium majorinum are identified as Oichnus and are interpreted as produced by naticids, probably Pseudamauropsis aureolutea. These new records constitute the first reports of drilling predation on scaphopods in Antarctica and also for Recent scaphopods of the Southern Hemisphere.

Automated summary

This study describes the discovery of drillholes on scaphopods in deep-sea environments of West Antarctica, providing the first reports of drilling predation on scaphopods in this region. The preyed shells with predation traces identified as Oichnus are interpreted as produced by naticids, possibly Pseudamauropsis aureolutea, marking the first records of Recent scaphopods from the Southern Hemisphere.