The fossil record shows that all molluscan classes evolved some 500 million years ago [36] from a shelled ancestor looking something like a modern monoplacophoran, and that modifications of the shell form ultimately led to the formation of new classes and lifestyles.[37] However, a growing body of molecular and biological data indicate that at least certain shell features have evolved many times, independently.[38] The nacreous layer of shells is a complex structure, but rather than being difficult to evolve, it has in fact arisen many times convergently.[38] The genes used to control its formation vary greatly between taxa: under 10% of the (non-housekeeping) genes expressed in the shells that produce gastropod nacre are also found in the equivalent shells of bivalves: and most of these shared genes are also found in mineralizing organs in the deuterostome lineage.[7] The independent origins of this trait are further supported by crystallographic differences between clades: the orientation of the axes of the deposited aragonite 'bricks' that make up the nacreous layer is different in each of the monoplacophora, gastropods and bivalves.[7]