The Fossil Record of Predation: An Introduction

Abstract

Biologists and paleontologists agree that direct interactions among organisms are important ecological mechanisms that may play a key role in evolution. Among various biotic interactions, predation has often been recognized as a particularly significant ecological force. Its evolutionary importance is much more controversial, however, and researchers still debate the role predation has played in shaping the history of life. The fossil record is our primary source of the data needed to address this issue. In recent years, paleontologists have provided critical documentation of prey-predator interactions over evolutionary timescales, and from there have generated fruitful hypotheses regarding the history of life and the role of predation in evolution. The goal of this short course is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the current knowledge and understanding of the fossil record of predation-from direct indicators provided by trace fossils and coprolites to more indirect proxies provided by taphonomic data, functional morphology, and phylogenetic relationships. The short course includes presentations by experts in the areas of micropaleontology, invertebrate paleontology, paleoentomology, vertebrate paleontology, and anthropology. The fossil record left by parasites is also included because predators and parasites represent endmembers of the same ecological adaptation. This short course is organized into three distinct sections. The first, methodological, section (Methods) provides an overview of collecting methods, analytical techniques, and statistical strategies that are applied in the study of the fossil record of predation. Reviews from different fields, from invertebrate paleontology to physical anthropology, bring together various methodological perspectives and offer guidelines from collecting strategies to analytical approaches. The second, descriptive, section of the short course (Patterns) provides an up-to-date overview of current knowledge on the fossil record of predation. Various lines of evidence, from trace fossils to functional morphology, are reviewed for microfossils, marine invertebrates, terrestrial invertebrates, and vertebrates. The descriptive section illustrates the wealth of data already amassed by researchers, but also points to various temporal and taxonomic gaps that call for future research. The descriptive section sets the empirical stage for the interpretive, process-oriented section of the short course (Processes). This final section focuses on higher-order interpretations of the fossil record of predation, including models derived from or tested against it. This section of the short course presents various views regarding the role of predation in shaping the history of life on our planet. To our knowledge, this short course volume represents the first book that focuses solely on the paleobiology of predation. The volume provides a comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge of the fossil record of predatory behavior, demonstrates the amazing wealth of data on predator-prey interactions that can be extracted from the fossil record, and shows how these data are instrumental in developing new interpretations and hypotheses regarding the evolutionary history of ecological interactions. We hope that this short course will stimulate further research on predation and aid future investigators in identifying unexplored and fertile areas of study.