Octopuses and drilling snails as the main suspects of predation traces on shelled molluscs in West Antarctica

GORDILLO, SANDRA; GISELA A. MORÁN; MALVÉ, MARIANO E.

POLAR BIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2021

0722-4060

The analysis of predation traces on shelled taxa is a primary source of data for studying predator?prey interactions in bothmodern and past ecosystems, and provides valuable information along ecological and evolutionary timescales. For Antarctica,there is little information about predation traces on shelled taxa, and the available studies come almost entirely fromfossil remains. We examined traces (holes and cracks) attributed to different predators on mollusc shells from bottom benthiccommunities at 15 stations in West Antarctica, at depths between 71.5 and 754 m. Based on 72 shells with signs of predation,we recognized three different patterns: one produced by drilling gastropods (most probably naticids), and two othersinterpreted as caused by octopuses. Our results indicate that predation traces on bivalves, which were the most commonprey, are nonrandomly distributed, suggesting site selectivity by predators. Future work on predation traces by durophageson shelled Antarctic molluscs is still a pending and necessary issue.