Predation by gastropod drills on early lutetian ostracods from Kutch, western India

Abstract

Extensive gastropod predation of three ostracod species Cytherella harudiensis, Alocopocythere transcendens and Paijenborchella trisulcata is recorded from the Early Lutetian Harudi Formation of Kutch, Western India. While no apparent relationship exists between the dimensions of the hole drilled and the size of the prey, the predator apparently preferred drilling through the posterodorsal part of the right valves. The majority of the boreholes in C. barudiensis, though small in diameter, were apparently drilled by juvenile naticids, suggestive of its being infaunal in habit. The other tow ostracods were probably epifaunal although the nature of the boreholes suggests a naticid predator.