Article: Drilling and peeling of turritelline gastropods since the Late Cretaceous

Frequencies of predation on turritelline gastropods by drilling and peeling predators have not changed significantly during the course of the Cenozoic. Rates of drilling in the Cretaceous are lower than Cenozoic rates, but not significantly so. Conversely, rates of peeling and repair in the Late Cretaceous reach or exceed Cenozoic values.Turritelline shell form is not correlated with predation intensity. Highly sculptured species are not more immune to drilling and peeling predation than are less sculptured taxa. Shell geometry in these gastropods does not show progressive trends during the Cenozoic. Sculpture strength and most aspects of shell form and sculpture strength are evidently not adaptations to resisting peeling and drilling predation in turritellines. Turritellines have not evolved during the Cenozoic in an arms race to build more predation-resistant shells, although behavioural or other non-shell characteristics may have changed over time. Thus, in this group, any 'marine revolution' and adaptive response of prey to the evolution of durophagous predators must have occurred prior to the Late Cretaceous.