[Rockhounds] Fossil study reveals oldest-known evolutionary 'arms race'

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

A study led by researchers at the American Museum of Natural History
presents the oldest known example in the fossil record of an evolutionary
arms race. These 517-million-year-old predator-prey interactions occurred
in the ocean covering what is now South Australia between a small, shelled
animal distantly related to brachiopods and an unknown marine animal
capable of piercing its shell.

Described in the journal *Current Biology*, the study
<https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)01647-6> provides
the first demonstrable record of an evolutionary arms race in the Cambrian.

"Predator-prey interactions are often touted as a major driver of the
Cambrian explosion, especially with regard to the rapid increase in
diversity and abundance of biomineralizing organisms at this time. Yet,
there has been a paucity of empirical evidence showing that prey directly
responded to predation <https://phys.org/tags/predation/>, and vice versa,"
said Russell Bicknell, a postdoctoral researcher in the Museum's Division
of Paleontology and lead author of the study.

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-fossil-reveals-oldest-evolutionary-arms.html