Continental snails, including terrestrial and freshwater species, are often useful as ecological and chronological indicators. The gathering of mollusks, well adapted to a specific biotope, allows definition of a malacological association. Their diachronic evolution shows palaeoenvironmental changes. Some associations are typical for a period of the Quaternary era. Extinct or emigrated species are used as chronological markers. The morphological evolution of snails can be used in chronological as well as palaeoecological reconstructions, and the relative temperature may be estimated by the analysis of isotopes in the shell's carbonate. -- AATA