Macroecology and evolution of a crab ‘super predator’, Menippe mercenaria (Menippidae), and its gastropod prey

It is widely accepted that the fossil record shows both the evolution of more powerful durophagous marine predators through time and, in response, major shifts in life mode and morphology for many prey taxa. Few fossil studies, however, have successfully identified particular predator species with respect to causing evolutionary change in particular prey species. We present evidence that the evolutionary appearance in the western Atlantic of the stone crab, Menippe mercenaria, an extraordinarily powerful durophagous predator, contributed to the appearance of sinistrality, which is very rare, in two genera of marine gastropods (Conus and Sinistrofulgur) during the Pliocene. Based on this conclusion, we suggest that modern fishing pressure on stone crabs may lead to evolutionary changes in their present day prey.