Article: Food specialization and the evolution of predatory prosobranch gastropods

Predatory prosobranch gastropods from the Neogastropoda, Tonnacea, and Naticacea feed upon a wide variety of invertebrate prey. They are an extremely diverse trophic group comprising some twenty-six families, most of which are found at tropical or subtropical latitudes. Empirical evidence suggests that competition has been an important process in shaping the diets and habitats of related species and, over a longer time period, of the different families. Nearly all the predatory families first appeared in a massive adaptive radiation in the late Cretaceous and it is probable that the major habitat and feeding adaptations were acquired at this time. The present-day steep latitudinal gradient in diversity and the importance of Buccinidae at high latitudes were developed during and since the Miocene. In the Campanian-Maastrichtian, and perhaps for most of the Upper Cretaceous, times, predators were more diverse at higher than at lower latitudes, which is the reverse of the present-day situation. The late Cretaceous diversification of gastropods coincided with similar radiations in other predatory and non-predatory groups of marine animals. The continental fragmentation/ diversity model probably best accounts for these massive changes in the composition of marine faunas.