Gastropoda (Gastropod or Sea Snail)

Gastropods are sea snails with soft bodies protected by a spiral unchambered calcium carbonate shell. In this region the Permian Gastropods that lived in the cold waters on the sea floor were most probably algal grazers. Almost all Gastropod species that ever existed are still around today. Their mobility and ability to protect their soft bodies inside their hard shells probably explains their escape from extinction at the end of the Permian Period when 80% of all animal & plant species were wiped out.