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Ostracod carnivory through time

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Predation in Organisms

4.1 Abstract

Carnivory in modern ostracods takes the form of predation, scavenging and parasitism. In the fossil record, carnivory is difficult to prove without the fossilisation of diagnostic functional morphological features or the preservation of the intimate association between the ostracods and the carrion or prey. Six examples of putative carnivory are known in geological deep time, the most persuasive being scavenging myodocopes of Ordovician, Carboniferous and Triassic ages (Myodoprimigenia, Eocypridina and Triadocypris), where swarms of ostracods are found associated with carcasses, and the early Silurian Colymbosathon in which characteristic soft part anatomy is preserved. Other putative scavengers, such as late Jurassic Juralebris, are unlikely to be carnivorous.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK

    I. Wilkinson & P. Wilby

  2. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, PO1 3QL, UK

    P. Williams

  3. Department of Geology, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK

    D. Siveter

  4. UMR 5125 du CNRS “Paléoenvironnements et Paléobiosphère”, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Campus Scientifique de La Doua, 2, rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    J. Vannier

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  1. I. Wilkinson
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  1. Faculty of Science Department of Geology, Minia University, 61519, Minia, Egypt

    Ashraf M. T. Elewa

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Wilkinson, I., Wilby, P., Williams, P., Siveter, D., Vannier, J. (2007). Ostracod carnivory through time. In: Elewa, A.M.T. (eds) Predation in Organisms. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-46046-6_4

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