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Cited by 1,043Evolution and Paleontology StudiesPaleontology and Stratigraphy of FossilsMarine Biology and Ecology Research

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 82 of the 84 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Mesozoic marine revolution: evidence from snails, predators and grazers

Vermeij, Geerat J.·1977·Paleobiology
DOI 10.1017/s0094837300005352
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Abstract

Tertiary and Recent marine gastropods include in their ranks a complement of mechanically sturdy forms unknown in earlier epochs. Open coiling, planispiral coiling, and umbilici detract from shell sturdiness, and were commoner among Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic gastropods than among younger forms. Strong external sculpture, narrow elongate apertures, and apertural dentition promote resistance to crushing predation and are primarily associated with post-Jurassic mesogastropods, neogastropods, and neritaceans. The ability to remodel the interior of the shell, developed primarily in gastropods with a non-nacreous shell structure, has contributed greatly to the acquisition of these antipredatory features. The substantial increase of snail-shell sturdiness beginning in the Early Cretaceous has accompanied, and was perhaps in response to, the evolution of powerful, relatively small, shell-destroying predators such as teleosts, stomatopods, and decapod crustaceans. A simultaneous intensification of grazing, also involving skeletal destruction, brought with it other fundamental changes in benthic community structure in the Late Mesozoic, including a trend toward infaunalization and the disappearance or environmental restriction of sessile animals which cannot reattach once they are dislodged. The rise and diversification of angiosperms and the animals dependent on them for food coincides with these and other Mesozoic events in the marine benthos and plankton. The new predators and prey which evolved in conjunction with the Mesozoic reorganization persisted through episodes of extinction and biological crisis. Possibly, continental breakup and the wide extent of climatic belts during the Late Mesozoic contributed to the conditions favorable to the evolution of skeleton-destroying consumers. This tendency may have been exaggerated by an increase in shelled food supply resulting from the occupation of new adaptive zones by infaunal bivalves and by shell-inhabiting hermit crabs. Marine communities have not remained in equilibrium over their entire geological history. Biotic revolutions made certain modes of life obsolete and resulted in other adaptive zones becoming newly occupied.

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Citations

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Research works printed but not linked: 19

  1. Newell, 1971, An outline history of tropical organic reefs, Am. Mus. Novit., 2465, 1
  2. Woodward, 1892, On the mode of growth and the structure of the shell in Velates conoideus, Lamk., and other Neritidae, 528
  3. Waller T. R. 1972. The functional significance of some shell microstructures in the Pectinacea (Mollusca: Bivalvia). Pp. 48–56. Int. Geol. Congr. 24th Session, Montreal, Can. Sect. 7, Paleontol.
  4. Stanley, 1977, Patterns of Evolution
  5. Fischer, 1977, Secular variation in pelagic realms, Soc. Econ. Petr. Mineral. Special Publ., 25
  6. Crosse, 1882, Note complémentaire sur la resorption des parois internes du teste chèz Olivella, J. Conchyliol., 30, 181
  7. 10.2307/2412837 · DOI
  8. Fischer, 1881, Note sur le genre Olivella, J. Conchyliol., 29, 31
  9. Earle, 1972, The influence of herbivores on the marine plants of Great Lameshur Bay, with an annotated list of plants, Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles County Sci. Bull., 14, 17
  10. Glaessner, 1969, Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, R399
  11. Kauffman, 1974, Structure and evolution of Antillean Cretaceous rudist frameworks, Verhandl. Naturf. Ges. Basel., 84, 399
  12. Copper, 1974, Structure and development of Early Paleozoic reefs, Second Int. Coral Reef Symp., 1, 365
  13. Kauffman, 1960, An Upper Cretaceous ammonite bitten by a mososaur, Contrib. Mus. Paleontol. Univ. Mich., 15, 193
  14. Vermeij, 1971, The geometry of shell sculpture, Forma et Functio., 4, 319
  15. Riegraf, 1973, Biszspuren auf Jurassischen Belemniten-rostren, N. Jb. Geol. Palaontol. M.H., 8, 494
  16. Bright, 1970, Food of deep-sea bottom fishes, Texas AandM Univ. Oceanogr. Studies., 1, 245
  17. Rex, 1976, Open coiling in Recent gastropods, Malacologia., 15, 289
  18. Rhoads, 1970, Mass properties, stability, and ecology of marine muds related to burrowing activity, Trace Fossils, 3, 391
  19. Yochelson, 1971, A new Late Devonian gastropod and its bearing on problems of open coiling and septation, Smithson. Contrib. Paleobiol., 3, 231

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Metadata

Authors
Vermeij, G. J.
Affiliations
University of Maryland, College Park (US)
Corresponding author
Vermeij, Geerat J.
ORCID
Vermeij, Geerat J.
Venue
Paleobiology
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
1977
Volume
3
Issue
3
Pages
245-258
ISSN
  • 0094-8373 (ISSN-L)
  • 1938-5331
DOI
10.1017/s0094837300005352
OpenAlex
W2336345527
Cited by
1,043
References
84
Citations by year
2026: 37 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 46 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 41 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 34
FWCI
6.91
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 14342 d)
Locations
Paleobiology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine Biology and Ecology Research
Keywords
Mesozoic Marine Revolution, teleosts, mantis shrimp, Decapoda, grazing, benthic community structure, angiosperm diversification, continental breakup, adaptive zones, hermit crabs, Bivalvia

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