Once tetanocerine lineages are established on the shoreline, terrestrial molluscan taxa are available as potential food resources.
In some Maastrichtian stage rock layers from various parts of the world, the later layers are terrestrial; earlier layers represent shorelines and the earliest layers represent seabeds.
Habitat-level components (water physiognomy, shoreline composition, and terrestrial vegetation cover) were more important in predicting both guild abundance and diversity.
Upon reaching the glaucothoe stage of development, they settle to the bottom, find and wear a suitably sized gastropod shell, and migrate to the shoreline with other terrestrial hermit crabs.
The other major Tetanocera clade common to both trees contains eight aquatic predators, one shoreline predator, one terrestrial predator and two species with unknown life cycles, with relatively minor differences in species relationships between the BI and ML trees.
These results support the hypothesis that there were multiple independent transitions from aquatic snail predation in the water to (1) aquatic snail predation on the shoreline and (2) terrestrial snail predation.
Our analyses demonstrate that five of the 10 independent transitions to terrestrial habitats were to the shoreline habitat where the prey taxa are the same as their aquatic ancestors (Hydromya Renocera Tetanocera; Figures 2 4).
This trend was observed across the Tetanocerini by Vala and Gasc [ 38], who found a series of reductions in the same breathing-related characters as lineages moved from aquatic to shoreline to drier terrestrial habitats.
Snail-killing flies (Diptera: Sciomyzidae) represent an excellent model system to study such transitions because their larvae display a range of feeding behaviors, being predators, parasitoids or saprophages of a variety of mollusks in freshwater, shoreline and dry terrestrial habitats.
For example, in addition to serving as a physical buffer between marine and terrestrial communities, Avicennia plants prevent erosion, stabilize shorelines, and provide habitat for a diverse array of terrestrial organisms.
