Molluscs
Where in NZ | Most marine and some terrestrial rocks. |
When | Late Cambrian (500 million years ago) to present |
Scale | Range from microscopic to c. 2 m |
What are they?
-
Animals typically with shells
- Molluscs live in a range of environments such as terrestrial forests and freshwater streams, lakes, the rocky shore and the deepest oceans.
- The most common fossil molluscs from New Zealand are marine.
- Bivalves - such as pipis, cockles and scallops
- Gastropods - snails and slugs
- Scaphopods - tusk shells
- Polyplacophora - chitons
- Cephalopods - octopus, squid, nautiloids, ammonites and belemnites
Used for:
- refining the geological time scale
- understanding large-scale controls on evolution
- reconstructing past environments
See some examples in our image gallery.