Echinoid Associated Traces (EAT)

Predation traces found on fossilized prey remains can be used to quantify the evolutionary history of biotic interactions. Fossil mollusk shells bearing these types of traces provided key evidence for the rise of predation during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution (MMR), an event which is thought to have reorganized global marine ecosystems. However, predation pressure on prey groups other than mollusks has not been explored adequately. Consequently, the ubiquity, tempo, and synchronicity of the MMR cannot be thoroughly assessed. Here, we expand the evolutionary record of biotic interactions by compiling and analyzing a new comprehensively-collected database on drilling predation in Meso-Cenozoic echinoids. Trends in drilling frequency reveal an Eocene rise in drilling predation that postdated echinoid infaunalization and the rise in mollusk-targeted drilling (an iconic MMR event) by ~100 million years. The temporal lag between echinoid infaunalization and the rise in drilling frequencies s...