Barnacles are among the crustaceans, although they do not resemble crabs or lobsters at all. The animals live in shallow seawater where they are found in many places where the water goes up and down. It has a shell that consists of fused lime plates, the opening is closed by two movable lime plates. When there is water, the two movable plates are standing open and the feathery long cirri stick out. A barnacle is a filterer, the cirri take care of a water flow through which food is filtered out of the water. By moving the cirri back and forth, the food comes to them. That is mainly plankton. If there is no water then the plates are closed.
The animals attach themselves to wood, rocks, stones, shells, and even the skin of whales or sea turtles. They look like stone and have the shape of a cone. If they sit together with many, they can form tall columns. If there are many barnacles together, they can all get the water moving and bring more food to them. Barnacle larvae do not yet have a shell and swim freely in the water.
In the photo, we see the shells of dead barnacles without the movable plates.
No comments:
Post a Comment