Sabia on shells; a specialized Pacific-type commensalism in the Caribbean Neogene

University of California at Davis, Department of Geology, Davis, CA, United States

In the Recent biota, species of the hipponicid gastropod genus Sabia that excavate characteristic pits on the outer surfaces of shells of reef-dwelling gastropods and hermit crabs occur only in the tropical Indo-West Pacific region and in adjacent warm temperate parts of Japan and Australia. I report the discovery of Sabia pits in reef-associated gastropod shells from the Cercado (late Miocene) and Gurabo (early Pliocene) Formations of the Dominican Republic. The likely culprit was Hipponix otiosa Pilsbry and Johnson, 1917, a species here reassigned to Sabia Gray, 1840. Pliocene extinction, which was far more severe in the Caribbean and elsewhere in the western Atlantic than in the Indo-West Pacific, selectively eliminated Sabia and its commensalism from Atlantic reef ecosystems. This case is one of several examples indicating the vulnerability of specialized associations to extinction-causing disturbances.

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