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Science 17 July 1992:
Vol. 257. no. 5068, pp. 367 - 369
DOI: 10.1126/science.257.5068.367
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Articles

Predatorial Borings in Late Precambrian Mineralized Exoskeletons

Stefan Bengtson 1 and Yue Zhao 2

1 Department of Geosciences (Palaeontology), Uppsala University, Box 558, S-751 22 Uppsala, Sweden
2 Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing, People's Republic of China

The late Precambrian tube-forming Cloudina, the earliest known animal to produce a mineralized exoskeleton, shows evidence of having been attacked by shell-boring organisms. Of more than 500 tubes from Shaanxi Province, China, 2.7% have rounded holes 40 to 400 micrometers in diameter. The relation between the size of the holes and the width of the bored tubes suggests that the attacking organism was a predator, selecting its prey for size. If true, this would be the oldest case of predation in the fossil record and would support the hypothesis that selection pressures from predation was a significant factor in the evolution of animal skeletons around the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary.

Submitted on March 12, 1992
Accepted on June 1, 1992


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