Several gastropods, including members of the Busyconinae, wedge or chip bivalve prey by inserting the outer lip between the valves. This habit, which is associated with an abapically downwardly convex outer lip, often results in breakage and subsequent repair of the lip. I tested the hypothesis that convex-lipped clavilithines from the Eocene of France and the Neogene of Indonesia had higher frequencies of repair than their straight-lipped counterparts. Although this prediction was verified, frequencies of repair are low (0 to 0.19) compared to those of busyconines, indicating either that prey bivalves were small or that the predators are smaller than most busyconines.

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Vita Malacologica
Staff publications

Vermeij, G. J. (2015). Fossil predation: did some clavilithine fasciolariid gastropods employ valve-wedging to feed on bivalves?. Vita Malacologica, 13, 27–30.