Recognition and interpretation of predatory traces in echinoid skeletons: towards the evolution of predator-prey systems in ecologically important echinoid taxa

海胆骨骼中捕食痕迹的识别和解释：生态重要的海胆类群中捕食者-被捕食系统的进化

• 批准号: 423142648
• 负责人: Dr. Tobias Grun
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsgruppe Invertebraten Paläontologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Fellowships
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/423142648?language=en
• 关键词: Recognition; interpretation; predatory; traces; echinoid

Echinoids are an important ecological component of marine benthic ecosystems. In particular, the irregular echinoid taxa of clypeasteroids and spatangoids play a significant role in many shallow-water habitats. These abundant deposit feeders act as ecosystem engineers by recycling and ventilating the upper sediment layers and thus creating an oxygenated sediments for infaunal organisms. In addition, clypeasteroids and spatangoids are both ecologically important by representing a major food source for diverse vertebrates and invertebrates. However, despite the high preservation potential of echinoid remains and the ecological importance of clypeasteroids and spatangoids in soft-bottom environments, their predator-prey relationships remain underexplored. The limited understanding of echinoid-predator interactions hampers our ability to fully assess their ecological relevance in modern ecosystems and evaluate the importance of biotic interactions through their evolutionary history.The proposed project aims to investigate echinoid communities from shallow-water habitats in tropical and subtropical settings focusing on (1) predator and prey spectra, (2) predator-associated traces, and (3) modeling of predator populations based on traces they leave in the echinoid remains. An integral part of the project is thus the identification, recognition and cataloging of predator-echinoid interactions and associated traces. The gained findings will improve our ability to interpret the ecological role of echinoids and enable us to investigate more reliably the evolutionary and macroecological aspects of biotic interactions through the geological history of these echinoids. Moreover, because many echinoid predators are cryptic or rarely preserve as fossils, recorded traces produced by echinoid predators may allow us to detect their presence in ancient and present-day ecosystems. This basic research will provide a methodological foundation for independent, echinoid-based tests of two major conceptual hypotheses, “Escalation Hypothesis” and “Mesozoic Marine Revolution Hypothesis”, originally developed and tested using mollusks.

棘球类是海洋底栖生态系统的重要生态组成部分。特别是，不规则的泥质小行星和扇形棘棘类分类群在许多浅水生境中发挥着重要作用。这些丰富的沉积物喂食者扮演着生态工程师的角色，通过循环和通风上层沉积物，从而为底栖生物创造一个含氧沉积物。此外，脊椎动物和脊椎动物都具有重要的生态意义，它们是各种脊椎动物和无脊椎动物的主要食物来源。然而，尽管棘球类遗骸具有很高的保存潜力，并且在软底环境中具有重要的生态意义，但它们的捕食者-猎物关系仍然没有得到充分的探索。对棘皮刺-捕食者相互作用的有限了解阻碍了我们充分评估它们在现代生态系统中的生态相关性和通过它们的进化史评估生物相互作用的重要性的能力。拟议的项目旨在调查热带和亚热带环境中浅水生境中的棘皮刺群落，重点是(1)捕食者和猎物的光谱，(2)捕食者相关的痕迹，以及(3)基于它们在棘皮刺遗骸中留下的痕迹对捕食者种群的建模。因此，该项目的一个组成部分是确定、识别和编目捕食者与棘球动物的相互作用和相关踪迹。所获得的发现将提高我们解释棘球藻类生态作用的能力，并使我们能够通过这些棘球藻类的地质历史更可靠地研究生物相互作用的进化和宏观生态方面。此外，由于许多棘棘类捕食者是神秘的或很少作为化石保存下来，记录下来的棘棘类捕食者产生的痕迹可能会让我们探测到它们在古代和现代生态系统中的存在。这项基础研究将为最初利用软体动物开发和测试的两个主要概念假说--“升级假说”和“中生代海洋革命假说”--进行独立的、基于海绵体的检验提供方法论基础。