Predatory drilling on molluscan assemblages along the Patagonian shelf (southern Argentina)

Both present-day and fossil molluscan assemblages offer an opportunity for a better understanding of the structure and organization of both modern and past benthic communities. In this framework, drill holes are used widely to explore predator–prey interactions. This research focuses on predation marks, especially drill holes, recorded on modern molluscan assemblages in a Patagonian sector of the Argentinean continental shelf. Shelled molluscs (n = 2179) were recovered from 27 to 135 m depths covering a long latitudinal extent (between 39° and 54°S). For each station, taxonomic position, ecological composition and relative abundance of taxa were determined, and then drilling frequency (DF) was calculated to infer drilling intensity. The collected molluscs belong to 37 families, with Veneridae being the most abundant in terms of the number of specimens (n = 419). Specimens with drill holes (n = 226) belong to 21 families (with at least 33 different species). Most of them are suspension feeders (85.8%) and the remaining percentage comprised other trophic types. Naticids and muricids, as main potential predators, together account for 19.6% of the gastropods present in the molluscan assemblages. DF across all the stations was moderate (9.9%) but varied between low (0–2.4%) and high (28.9%). These results do not show a trend linked to latitude or depth, and the great variability of DF between stations suggests that other local ecological or environmental conditions would influence drilling predation at a small spatio-scale.