Researchers from the American Museum of Natural History presented the first well-known example of the evolutionary arms race, recorded in fossils. These interactions of predators and casualties occurred about 517 million years ago in the ocean, which covered modern southern Australia.
Nakhodka, described in the journal Current Biology, reveals how small animals with shells, remotely associated with modern shoulder-legged, opposed unknown predators that could break through their protective shells. Scientists have found that the thicknesses of the ancient shelter Lapworthella Fasciculata have increased over time, which indicates a microvo between prey and predators.
“The predator-victim interaction is one of the key factors of the Cambrian explosion, the period of a quick increase in biological diversity,” said Russell Biknell, the leading author of the study. However, direct evidence of the adaptation of victims and predators to such conditions has not yet been enough.
Scientists studied more than 200 L. fasciculata shells, many of which had holes left by soft-bodied mollusks or predators. The analysis showed that as the number of broken shells increased, their walls thickened, demonstrating how predators and victims developed, reacting to each other’s actions.
This find emphasizes the significance of predation as a factor stimulating the development of early ecosystems, and shows how quickly the adaptations occurred during the Cambrian explosion.