Abstract
Ecosystem engineers are organisms that fundamentally reshape their habitats, creating distinct beneficiary and victim taxa within ecological communities. While their positive roles are well-documented, their potential to exert negative, destructive effects is less explored in the fossil record. This study investigates the intricate relationship between thalassinidean decapods (producing Thalassinoides and Glossifungites ichnofabrics) and molluscan communities within the Upper Miocene Dar Pahn Unit, Makran, SE Iran. Through integrated sedimentological, taphonomic, and ichnological analysis, we identify a clear pattern: the proliferation of large, complex thalassinidean burrow networks is consistently associated with the collapse of dense, suspension-feeding bivalve communities, such as Dosinia and Anadara. We propose a model of “trophic amensalism via bioturbation,” whereby the intense sediment reworking by burrowing axiidean and/or gebiidean shrimps does not merely coexist with these molluscs but actively excludes them. The engineering activity fluidizes the substrate, smothers infauna, clogs filtration apparatuses, and destabilizes the seafloor, rendering it uninhabitable for most molluscs. This study provides a deep-time validation of a powerful and potentially widespread ecological process, demonstrating that the trace fossil record can archive fundamental regime shifts driven by negative species interactions. Furthermore, our findings bridge paleoecology and modern biogeochemistry, suggesting that such engineer-driven community turnovers likely had significant, yet overlooked, consequences for benthic-pelagic coupling and carbon cycling in ancient marine environments.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Department of Earth Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) for institutional support.
Funding
This study was supported by the Department of Earth Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) under research grant 100/151/14540 (A.B.G.). M.H. and D.X. acknowledge funding from the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (International Scientists Project IS24097), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFF0800800), and the Foreign Expert Project (H20240335). D.X. also acknowledges support from the Deep-time Digital Earth Science and Technology Leading Talents Team Funds for the Central Universities for the Frontiers Science Center for Deep-time Digital Earth, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) (Grant 2652023001). C.N.C. acknowledges the support of FCT, I.P./MCTES (PT) through national funds (PIDDAC): LA/P/0068/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0068/2020), UID/50019/2025 – (https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/50019/2025), and by the European Union – NextGenerationEU under projects UID/ /PRR/50019/2025 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/PRR/50019/2025) and UID/PRR2/50019/2025 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/PRR2/50019/2025, and the financial support provided to the Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT) through the multi-annual funding contract with the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under project UID/04683/2025 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/04683/2025).
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z,2E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Bayet-Goll); [email protected] (M. Hadi).
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Bayet-Goll, A., Hadi, M., de Carvalho, C.N. et al. Thalassinidean shrimp ecosystem engineering and trophic amensalism as drivers of molluscan community collapse during the Miocene.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-68587-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-68587-3
Keywords
- Ecosystem engineers
- Thalassinidean shrimps
- Molluscan communities
- Trophic amensalism
- Ichnofabrics
- Miocene
Source: Ecology - nature.com
