Gastropoda are an exceptionally successful group with a rich and diverse fossil record. They have conquered land and freshwater habitats multiple times independently and have dispersed across the entire globe. Since they are important constituents of fossil assemblages, they are often used for palaeoecological reconstruction, biostratigraphic correlations, and as model groups to study morphological and taxonomic evolution. While marine faunas and their evolution have been a common subject of study, the freshwater component of the fossil record has attracted much less attention, and a global overview is lacking. Here, I review the fossil record of freshwater gastropods on a global scale, ranging from their origins in the late Palaeozoic to the Pleistocene. As compiled here, the global fossil record of freshwater Gastropoda includes 5182 species in 490 genera, 44 families, and 12 superfamilies over a total of ~340 million years. Following a slow and poorly known start in the late Palaeozoic, diversity slowly increased during the Mesozoic. Diversity culminated in an all-time high in the Neogene, relating to diversification in numerous long-lived (ancient) lakes in Europe. I summarise well-documented and hypothesised freshwater colonisation events and compare the patterns found in freshwater gastropods to those in land snails. Furthermore, I discuss potential preservation and sampling biases, as well as the main drivers underlying species diversification in fresh water on a larger scale. In that context, I particularly highlight the importance of long-lived lakes as islands and archives of evolution and expand a well-known concept in ecology and evolution to a broader spectrum: scale-independent ecological opportunity.

中文翻译：

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淡水腹足动物的化石记录——全球回顾

腹足纲是一个非常成功的类群，拥有丰富多样的化石记录。它们曾多次独立地征服陆地和淡水栖息地，并分散到全球各地。由于它们是化石组合的重要组成部分，因此通常用于古生态学重建、生物地层相关性以及作为研究形态和分类进化的模型组。虽然海洋动物群及其进化一直是研究的常见课题，但化石记录的淡水部分引起的关注却少得多，而且缺乏全球概览。在这里，我回顾了全球范围内淡水腹足动物的化石记录，从古生代晚期到更新世的起源。据此处整理，淡水腹足纲的全球化石记录包括 490 个属、44 个科和 12 个总科的 5182 个物种，时间总计约 3.4 亿年。继古生代晚期缓慢且鲜为人知的开始之后，多样性在中生代缓慢增加。新近纪的多样性达到了历史最高水平，这与欧洲许多长寿（古代）湖泊的多样性有关。我总结了有据可查和假设的淡水定殖事件，并将淡水腹足动物中发现的模式与陆地蜗牛中发现的模式进行了比较。此外，我还讨论了潜在的保护和采样偏差，以及大规模淡水物种多样化的主要驱动因素。在这种背景下，我特别强调长寿湖泊作为岛屿和进化档案的重要性，并将生态学和进化中的一个众所周知的概念扩展到更广泛的范围：与规模无关的生态机会。