Diversity, biogeography, and evolution of European freshwater gastropods over the past 200 million years

Thomas Neubauer

Abstract:

Freshwater Gastropoda are an extraordinarily successful group looking back on a rich and diverse fossil record. Here, I summarize key findings of the research on biodiversity, biogeography and evolution of freshwater snails across various taxonomic, spatial, stratigraphic and ecological scales over the past decade. Focus is on European ecosystems and its faunal development over the past 200 million years, with selected highlights such as the impact of the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction, the Quaternary glaciations and the role of long-lived lakes. To put all findings into perspective on a larger scale, a global overview of the Mesozoic to Pleistocene fossil record of freshwater gastropods is presented. Finally, I discuss the driving forces underlying species diversification and the spatially non-uniform distribution of diversity, emphasizing the role of ecological opportunity.