CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 174Paleontology and Stratigraphy of FossilsEvolution and Paleontology StudiesProtist diversity and phylogeny

Origins and Early Evolution of Predation

Bengtson, Stefan·2002·The Paleontological Society Papers
DOI 10.1017/s1089332600001133
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Predation, in the broad sense of an organism killing another organism for nutritional purposes, is probably as old as life itself and has originated many times during the history of life. Although little of the beginnings is caught in the fossil record, observations in the rock record and theoretical considerations suggest that predation played a crucial role in some of the major transitions in evolution. The origin of eukaryotic cells, poorly constrained to about 2.7 Ga by geochemical evidence, was most likely the ultimate result of predation among prokaryotes. Multicellularity (or syncytiality), as a means of acquiring larger size, is visible in the fossil record soon after 2 Ga and is likely to have been mainly a response to selective pressure from predation among protists. The appearance of mobile predators on bacteria and protists may date back as far as 2 Ga or it may be not much older than the Cambrian explosion, or about 600 Ma. The combined indications from the decline of stromatolites and the diversification of acritarchs, however, suggest that such predation may have begun around 1 Ga. The Cambrian explosion, culminating around 550 Ma, represents the transition from simple, mostly microbial, ecosystems to ones with complex food webs and second- and higher-order consumers. Macrophagous predators were involved from the beginning, but it is not clear whether they originated in the plankton or in the benthos. Although predation was a decisive selective force in the Cam…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s1089332600001133

Cites

255 of 255 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In jawless vertebrates, the evolutionary increase in mouth reinforcement begins with cartilaginous structures or other non-mineralized supports carrying tooth-like structures, including conodonts sensu lato.

    “As in early mollusc evolution, the evolutionary increase in mouth reinforcement begins with cartilaginous structures or other non-mineralized supports,carrying tooth-like structures in jawless vertebrates including conodonts sensu lato (protoconodonts; Missarzhevskij 1973, Bengtson 2002, Goudemand et al. 2011, Murdock et al. 2013).”

    From Palaeozoic evolution of animal mouthparts (2017) · cites this paper as Bengtson 2002

  • In the Neoproterozoic, multicellular organisms added motile benthic modes of life including the first macroscopic predators in a broad sense.

    “In the Neoproterozoic, multicellular organisms added motile benthic modes of life including the first macroscopic predators in a broad sense (review in Bengtson 2002; see also Kelley et al. 2003).”

    From Palaeozoic evolution of animal mouthparts (2017) · cites this paper as Bengtson 2002

  • The rapid increase in diversity and abundance of biomineralizing organisms during the early Cambrian is often attributed to predation and an evolutionary arms race.

    “The rapid increase in diversity and abundance of biomineralizing organisms during the early Cambrian is often attributed to predation and an evolutionary arms race.”

    From Adaptive responses in Cambrian predator and prey highlight the arms race during the rise of animals (2025) · cites this paper as [14]

  • Predation was a major ecological driver of early animal evolution.

    “illustrating the importance of predation as a major ecological driver of early animal evolution.”

    From Adaptive responses in Cambrian predator and prey highlight the arms race during the rise of animals (2025) · cites this paper as [14]

  • Our data, coupled with other available information from the fossil record, support the hypothesis that a metazoan arms race was firmly established during the early Cambrian.

    “Nonetheless, our data, coupled with other available information from the fossil record, support the hypothesis that a metazoan arms race was firmly established during the early Cambrian”

    From Adaptive responses in Cambrian predator and prey highlight the arms race during the rise of animals (2025) · cites this paper as [14]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

14 of the 269 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Bengtson, S.
Affiliations
Swedish Museum of Natural History (SE)
Corresponding author
Bengtson, Stefan
ORCID
Bengtson, Stefan
Venue
The Paleontological Society Papers
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2002-10
Volume
8
Pages
289-318
ISSN
  • 1089-3326 (ISSN-L)
  • 2399-7575
DOI
10.1017/s1089332600001133
OpenAlex
W2807075913
Cited by
174
References
269
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 3
FWCI
1.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 5407 d)
Locations
The Paleontological Society Papers (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protist diversity and phylogeny
Keywords
predation, early evolution, eukaryotic origin, endosymbiosis, multicellularity, protist predation, bacterial predation, Cambrian explosion, stromatolites, acritarchs, food webs, evolutionary transitions

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review