From the Foreword: "Predator-prey interactions are among the most significant of all organism-organism interactions....It will only be by compiling and evaluating data on predator-prey relations as they are recorded in the fossil record that we can hope to tease apart their role in the tangled web of evolutionary interaction over time. This volume, compiled by a group of expert specialists on the evidence of predator-prey interactions in the fossil record, is a pioneering effort to collate the information now accumulating in this important field. It will be a standard reference on which future study of one of the central dynamics of ecology as seen in the fossil record will be built." (Richard K. Bambach, Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech, Associate of the Botanical Museum, Harvard University)

This book addresses the fundamental issues of predator-prey interactions, with an emphasis on predation among arthropods, which have been better studied, and for which the database is more extensive than for the large and rare vertebrate predators. The book should appeal to ecologists interested in the broad issue of predation effects on communities.

It has become apparent from the literature that bioerosional processes affect a wide range of biological and geological systems that cross many disciplines among the sciences. This book is dedicated to crossing those traditional disciplinary boundaries to present a united and current perspective on the pattern and process of bioerosion. The book opens with papers on the evolutionary significance of bioerosion. It concludes with a primer on the bioerosion bibliography website.

Predation is one of the commonest ecologial interactions in the natural world, and predators have attracted attention from all sort of naturalists, and then scientists, since time immemorial. However, the influence of predator-prey relationships on the functioning of ecosystems remains largely unclear. The theoretical and empirical studies available to date are insufficient to provide comprehensive knowledge on the ecological consequences of predation, especially as the biological complexity increases. Predator-prey studies are also of much interest for the conservation of prey, and particularly of predators, mainly due to the traditional, strongly unfounded conflict between them and game harvesting. This book, with its six main chapters, aspires to increase and stimulate current knowledge of predator-prey relationships worldwide. For this purpose, the author takes advantage of the in-depth exploration -based on either an ecological or a conservation approach- of a typical Mediterranean vertebrate system. As a result, some old, controversial questions now find novel, science-based answers.

Escalation is enemy-driven evolution. This top-down view of a predator-prey evolutionary arms race downplays the role of prey in driving the predator's evolution. In the related process of coevolution, species change reciprocally in response to one another; prey are thought to drive the evolution of their predator, and vice versa. In the fossil record, the two processes are distinguished most reliably when the predator-prey system is viewed within the context of other species that may influence the interaction. I examined the interaction between busyconine whelks and their bivalve prey Mercenaria to evaluate whether reciprocal adaptation (coevolution) was likely to occur in this predator-prey system. Species of busyconines either employ a wedging or a chipping mode of predation when feeding on bivalve prey that often results in breakage to the predator's own shell. Prey in this interaction have been hypothesized to be 'dangerous' because they are able to inflict damage to the predator as a consequence of the interaction; such damage may lead to decreased growth, reproduction and increased probability of mortality for individual whelks. Asymmetry in selection pressure (which is thought to preclude reciprocity of adaptation) is reduced when predators interact with damage-inducing prey. The likelihood of a reciprocal selection response of the predator in the interaction involving the shell-chipping whelk Sinistrofulgur sinistrum and the bivalve Mercenaria mercenaria was viewed by regressing the frequency of shell breakage in encounters with prey (an index of predator fitness) on prey phenotype (a function of size). Experimental results indicate interaction with Mercenaria has strong highly significant and predictable selective consequences for Sinistrofulgur, suggesting that evolutionary response of the predator to prey adaptation is likely in this system. The late Oligocene to Recent fossil record of whelk predation traces on shells of Mercenaria species was analyzed.

The potential consequences of a predator-prey predators tend to do that increase or maximize prey interaction are probably more serious, especially capture and that prey tend to do to avoid being for the prey, than are the consequences of most captured? The second theme emphasized the eco competitive or parasite-host interactions. For this logical approach to predator-prey interactions. reason, the adaptations and tactics that prey show What are the environmental constraints that in to the foraging manoeuvers of their predators, and fluence the evolution of structures and behaviors the counteradaptations of their predators, are often involved in predation and its avoidance? How do pronounced and even spectacular. Predation may in these factors combine to produce particular ,fssem fact be a critical determinant of both the behavior blages of predators and prey with common adapta of individuals and of the functional and taxonomic tions? The 18 papers presented at the symposium, composition of fish assemblages. This possibility and the ones published in these proceedings, re was a major factor leading to the organization of present the varied approaches that researchers have the Behavioral Tactics symposium. The obvious taken in addressing these questions. necessity of feeding, the wealth of information Several topics were common to many presenta available on food and energy budgets of animals tions: four of these in particular deserve at least both in the laboratory and field, and the approach brief mention.