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Gastropod Main
Glossary
References
Links
Hooper Main |
Fossil Record
Gastropods are amongst the oldest known fossils; their shells can be found on rocks of up to Cambrian (540 Ma) age. Many gastropods alive today are almost unchanged from their ancestors over 30 million years old. Their shells are sometimes quite similar in different species, and for this reason fossils older than 350 Ma are difficult to classify and therefore ordered in a different system.
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Figure 14: Fossil Turritella species. A common gastropod, this species lived in the Tertiary. |
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