Foraminiferivory; selective ingestion of foraminifera and test alterations produced by the neogastropod Olivella

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Abstract
The term foraminiferivory is introduced to cover the general phenomenon of ingestion of foraminifera and to call attention to the range of specific interactions that can occur between foraminifera and organisms that ingest them. The neogastropod, O. biplicata, selectively ingests foraminifera. In small snails foraminiferal tests constitute as much as 60% of the gut contents, and concentrations are as high as 1000 times foraminiferal concentrations in sediments. Foraminiferivory in Olivella cannot be equated with predation because the resource for the gastropod may be the calcium carbonate or the organic matrix of empty tests. Because Olivella is the dominant macroinvertebrate in many shallow sandy substrates, the role of foraminifera in the energetic economy of the system may be of considerable importance. Tests are damaged in several different ways by the radula of the gastropod during ingestion and undergo characteristic patterns of multilayered etching and dissolution in the stomach. Such processes may cause the tests to be preferentially destroyed after burial in sediments, thus biasing the paleontological record in an unexpected way.