Record of Naticid Predation on Scaphopods (Mollusca) from the Latest Maastrichtian of Rajahmundry,India

Drilling predation provides a rare opportunity to study and quantify prey-predator interactions in the fossil record. Records of drilling predation on scaphopod mollusc are rare. Here, we report naticid drilling predation on scaphopods from a “Turritelline-dominated assemblage” (TDA) stratigraphically just below the K-Pg boundary sections in Rajahmundry, India, which was situated in the Southern Hemisphere during that time. Low drilling frequency was found in the present assemblage based on 248 specimens, which was similar to most of the Cretaceous values previously reported. Majority of the specimens of previous studies were reported from higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Our report extended the palaeobiogeography of naticid predation on scaphopods into the Southern Hemisphere. Size and site stereotypy of drillholes on the scaphopod shell suggested that predatory behavior of naticids was already highly evolved, but evidence of escalation was less clear in scaphopod prey.