History of Molluscs

Many molluscs are soft bodied invertebrates and therefore are hard to fossilize. However, some molluscs have shells which are fossilized. The earliest of the fossils appear around 350 mya (million years ago). This is the Carboniferous time period. The oldest fossils of currently extant gastropods, a type of mollusc that has a shell, have been found around 33.5 mya.