Predation on Bryozoans and its Reflection in the Fossil Record

Abstract

Bryozoans are present in many benthic marine habitats, where they range from minor to dominant ecological elements. At the present day and apparently throughout their history, bryozoans reached peak levels of taxonomic richness in middle to outer shelf locations (Bottjer and Jablonski, 1988; McKinney and Jackson, 1989; Clarke and Lidgard, 2000). Many shelf-depth carbonate deposits from the Middle Ordovician to the present have been dominated by their skeletal remains (James and Clark, 1997; Taylor and Allison, 1998). Predation intensity can be high in such shallow waters, and living bryozoans are the targeted or incidental prey of a wide diversity of predators, from fishes to pycnogonids.