html> Sarabellum: Wet and Salty

Barnacle
(Balanus sp., Semibalanus sp., Cthamalus sp.)
those little white things on rocks are
alive...

Barnacles are very common along the coasts of New England, where they live in large groups on wave exposed rocks. There are many species of barnacles, and they are identified by the shape and position of the plates of their exoskeleton. They are crustaceans, just like lobsters, crabs, and shrimp. They are simultaneous hermaphrodites, both male and female in the same body. Barnacles are active filter feeders. When water passes by them, they "open up" (which many children on my beach thought was the barnacle trying to bite them), and extend delicate appendages called cirripedia. These are used to strain the water for plankton. When they are forced to love close together, they have a tall, tower-like shape, and when there's not as many barnacles that survive in a year, they have a flatter, more dome-like shape.

Take me back to Species of the Week!
Take me back to the Main Page!