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Their body plan is uniquely reduced in an extreme adaptation to their parasitic lifestyle, and makes their relationship to other barnacles unrecognisable in the adult form. The name Rhizocephala derives from the Ancient Greek roots ῥίζα ( rhiza , "root") and κεφαλή ( kephalē , "head"), describing the adult female, which mostly ...
Adult barnacles have few appendages on their heads, with only a single, vestigial pair of antennae attached to the cement gland. The six pairs of thoracic limbs are called cirri; these are feathery and very long. The cirri extend to filter food, such as plankton, from the water and move it towards the mouth. [9]
Sacculina. Sacculina is a genus of barnacles that is a parasitic castrator of crabs.They belong to a group called Rhizocephala.The adults bear no resemblance to the barnacles that cover ships and piers; they are recognised as barnacles because their larval forms are like other members of the barnacle class Cirripedia.
Elminius modestus) is a species of barnacle in the family Elminiidae, native to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, but now spread to Britain and the north west coasts of Europe. [1] It reaches a maximum size of about 10 millimetres ( 3 ⁄ 8 in) in diameter.
This may be because these barnacles, being always under water, have a greater continuity of food supply. There is a wide variation in rate of growth and the factors affecting it include currents and nutrient content. A scarcity of diatoms in mid-summer may slow growth at this time. [6]
It is basically cone-shaped but can assume a more tubular shape in a crowded colony. Like other sessile barnacles, as an adult C. stellatus is a suspension feeder that stays in its fixed shell and uses its feathery, rhythmically beating appendages – actually modified legs – to draw plankton and detritus into its shell for consumption. [4]
Acorn barnacle and acorn shell are vernacular names for certain types of stalkless barnacles, generally excluding stalked or gooseneck barnacles. As adults they are typically cone-shaped, symmetrical, and attached to rocks or other fixed objects in the ocean. Members of the barnacle order Balanomorpha are often called acorn barnacles. [1] [2]
Since the species today lives in the intertidal zone, this allows an estimate to be made of the distance from the shoreline, and by implication, the water depth. These observations are backed up by the appearance of the deep-water trace fossil Zoophycum in the predicted deepest waters, suggesting that barnacles can be a good proxy for water depth.