Cretaceous Sea Snails

Sea snails are members of the Gastropod family, usually possessing hardened external shells. The more common variant of these shells are limpets, or the coiled varieties. The shells are composed of calcium carbonate and are actually the exoskeleton of the animal! Gastropods, including sea snails, are very old. The most ancient of these animals date to the Cambrian Period, potentially 585 million years ago. This snail shell dates to the Cretaceous period, and is probably 75 to 65 million years old.