1. (used with a sing. verb) A theory that explains the global distribution of geological phenomena such as seismicity, volcanism, continental drift, and mountain building in terms of the formation, destruction, movement, and interaction of the earth's lithospheric plates. 2. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The dynamics of plate movement.
Despite the fact that mollusks are very susceptible to changes in their environment because of their permeable skin and soft body (often with an exoskeleton in the form of a shell), they have adapted to all of the main environments of our planetâmarine, freshwater, and terrestrial. With 41% of the 736 documented extinctions of all animal species, the number of mollusks exceeds that of any other major taxonomic group 3. 2  Most documented endangered mollusk species are non marine (they live in freshwater or terrestrial environments) 5.
Mollusks are found in almost every habitat and include creatures such as snails, octopus, clams, abolones, mussels and oysters. With over 100,000 different species, mollusks are a diverse group. Despite their diversity, mollusks all share at least three distinct characteristics.