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Variation in Shell Repair in Cerithium stercusmuscarum (Mollusca; Gastropoda), Bahia la Choya, Sonora, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

Nancy Schmidt
Nancy Schmidt*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
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Abstract

Examination of shell repair in the Recent gastropod species Cerithiumstercusmuscarum from several microhabitats within Bahia la Choya, Sonora, Mexico reveals significant intraspecific variation in shell repair frequencies. Samples include approximately 800 individual gastropods from four distinct localities: two rocky and two sandy intertidal habitats. Biometric measurements and the number of scars on the last whorl were used to statistically investigate the relationships between size, habitat and shell repair.

Shell repair frequencies vary significantly between the microhabitats examined, and this variation is not related to differences in size-frequency distributions between samples. There is no preference for either larger or smaller snails to be attacked in any sample.

Trends in gastropod shell repair frequency provide a method of examining predator-prey relationships through time. However, potential problems, including microhabitat-related intraspecific variation in repair frequency, exist in interpreting repair trends. The results of this study demonstrate that there is significant variation in shell repair frequency through space at any one point in time. Intraspecific variation could, therefore, blur any overall trend in shell repair frequency through time.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 2: Paleoecology and Taphonomy of Pleistocene to Recent Intertidal Deposits, Gulf of California , 1987 , pp. 128 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 Paleontological Society 

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