Drilling in marine invertebrate shells is a common feeding strategy for a variety of predatory and parasitic gastropods. Naticids, muricids, capulids, nudibranchs, eulimids as well as the group of tonnaceans including cassids, cymatiids, tonnids, and some pulmonats are known drilling predators in marine environments (Bromley, 1981; Carriker, 1981; Kelley, 1988; Hoffmeister et al., 2004). Most of these drilling gastropods predate on a restricted variety of prey. Naticids, muricids and capulids, cymatiids and some pulmonats drill in other mollusks or barnacles (Carriker and Yochelson, 1968; Bromley, 1981; Palmer, 1982; Kelley, 2001; Kelley and Hansen, 2006). Nudibranchs are known to drill in calcareous polychaete tubes (Young, 1969), while cassids and eulimids drill in echinoids (Hughes and Hughes, 1971, 1981; Warén and Crossland, 1991; Warén et al., 1994). Drilling in shells leave predatory drillholes (Fig. 1A), which can be attributed to a specific predator due to characteristic morphological features. Drilling frequencies and the drillhole size can give detailed insights into fossil predator-prey interactions. Cassid gastropods are known predators of echinoids producing characteristic drillhole morphologies (Fig. 1B) and sizes (Hughes and Hughes, 1971, 1981). There has, however, been little study on the effects of taphonomic bias with respect to drillhole morphologies and preservation (Nebelsick and Kowalewski, 1999; Ceranka and Złotnik, 2003; Grun et al., 2014). This analysis includes numerous Recent and fossil tests of the clypeasteroid echinoid Echinocyamus pusillus from Recent nearshore environments around Giglio Island (Mediterranean Sea) and fossil specimens from Astrup and Doberg (northern Germany): with trace fossils (Oichnus) interpreted as drillholes. Tests were analyzed for: (1) drilling rates, (2) drillhole size, (3) size selectivity, (4) site selectivity, (5) drillhole morphology, (6) drilling based testdestructions, and (7) taphonomic alterations.