Reappraising the early evidence of durophagy and drilling predation in the fossil record: implications for escalation and the Cambrian Explosion

The Cambrian Explosion is arguably the most extreme example of a biological radiation preserved in the fossil record, and studies of Cambrian Lagerstätten have facilitated the exploration of many facets of this key evolutionary event. As predation was a major ecological driver behind the Explosion - particularly the radiation of biomineralising metazoans - the evidence for shell crushing (durophagy), drilling and puncturing predation in the...