- MOLLUSCS: THE SURVIVAL GAME (shapeoflife.org)
Their basic body plan includes a foot for mobility; a mantle that secretes a shell and a radula for eating. Molluscs today show many variations on this original body plan. An abalone escapes a sea star predator using its foot; and a moon snail hunts a cockle using its foot as a weapon. The radula has even evolved in an astonishing variety of ways to serve as a tool for feeding. The ancient nautilus was the first mollusc to leave the sea floor. Their ancestors evolved a way to swim using jet propulsion and evolved a way to maintain buoyancy. The evolution of speedy fishes drove the next step in the survival game: speed and loss of the shell, as seen in squid. Octopuses returned to live on the bottom and evolved intelligence and an ability to instantly camouflage itself in order to survive.
- Juan de Fuca Plate (Wikipedia)
The Juan de Fuca Plate is a small tectonic plate (microplate) generated from the Juan de Fuca Ridge that is subducting beneath the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone. It is named after the explorer of the same name. One of the smallest of Earth’s tectonic plates, the Juan de Fuca Plate is a remnant part of the once-vast Farallon Plate, which is now largely subducted underneath the North American Plate.
- Mollusca (Wikipedia)
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals, after Arthropoda; members are known as molluscs or mollusks (/ˈmɒləsk/). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is estimated between 60,000 and 100,000 additional species. The proportion of undescribed species is very high. Many taxa remain poorly studied.