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Barnacle
A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive settings. They are sessile (nonmobile) and most are suspension feeders, but those in infraclass Rhizocephala are highly specialized parasites on crustaceans. They have four nektonic (active swimming) larval stages. Around 1,000 barnacle species are currently known. The name is Latin, meaning "curl-footed". The study of barnacles is called cirripedology. Description Barnacles are encrusters, attaching themselves temporarily to a hard substrate or a symbiont such as a whale (whale barnacles), a sea snake (''Platylepas ophiophila''), or another crustacean, like a crab or a lobster (Rhizocephala). The most common among them, "acorn barnacles" (Sessilia), are sessile where they grow their shells directly onto the substrate. Pedunculat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whale Barnacle
Whale barnacles are species of acorn barnacle that belong to the family Coronulidae. They typically attach to baleen whales, and sometimes settle on toothed whales. The whale barnacles diverged from the turtle barnacles about three million years ago. Whale barnacles passively filter food, using tentacle-like cirri, as the host swims through the water. The arrangement is generally considered commensal as it is done at no cost or benefit to the host. However, some whales may make use of the barnacles as protective armor or for inflicting more damage while fighting, which would make the relationship mutualistic where both parties benefit; alternatively, some species may just increase the drag that the host experiences while swimming, making the barnacles parasites. After hatching, whale barnacles go through six molting stages before searching for a host, being prompted to settle by a chemical cue from the host skin. The barnacle creates a crown-shaped shell, and in most inst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goose Barnacle
Goose barnacles, also called stalked barnacles or gooseneck barnacles, are filter-feeding crustaceans that live attached to hard surfaces of rocks and flotsam in the ocean intertidal zone. Goose barnacles formerly made up the taxonomic order Pedunculata, but research has resulted in the classification of stalked barnacles within multiple orders of the infraclass Thoracica. Biology Some species of goose barnacles such as '' Lepas anatifera'' are pelagic and are most frequently found on tidewrack on oceanic coasts. Unlike most other types of barnacles, intertidal goose barnacles (e.g. '' Pollicipes pollicipes'' and '' Pollicipes polymerus'') depend on water motion rather than the movement of their cirri for feeding, and are therefore found only on exposed or moderately exposed coasts. Spontaneous generation In the days before it was realised that birds migrate, it was thought that barnacle geese, ''Branta leucopsis'', developed from this crustacean through spontane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhizocephala
Rhizocephala are derived barnacles that parasitise mostly decapod crustaceans, but can also infest Peracarida, mantis shrimps and thoracican barnacles, and are found from the deep ocean to freshwater. Together with their sister groups Thoracica and Acrothoracica, they make up the subclass Cirripedia. 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 (, "root") and (, "head"), describing the adult female, which mostly consists of a network of thread-like extensions penetrating the body of the host. Description and lifecycle As adults they lack appendages, segmentation, and all internal organs except gonads, a few muscles, and the remains of the nervous system. Females also have a cuticle, which is never shed. Other than the minute larval stages, there is nothing identifying them as crustaceans o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chthamalus Stellatus
''Chthamalus stellatus'', common name Poli's stellate barnacle, is a species of acorn barnacle common on rocky shores in South West England, Ireland, and Southern Europe. It is named after Giuseppe Saverio Poli. Description ''C. stellatus'' is a sessile barnacle that attaches to rocks and other firm materials in the intertidal zone using its membranous base. 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. The chalky white shell of ''C. stellatus'' has a kite-shaped opercular opening when it is a juvenile and an oval operculum opening when it is an adult. The shell is made up of six solid wall plates of approximately equal size. Its relatively narrow rostral plates remain separate from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platylepas Ophiophila
''Platylepas ophiophila'', commonly known as the sea snake barnacle, is a species of barnacle in the family Platylepadidae. It is native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean where it lives as a symbiont of a sea snake Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, w .... Ecology ''Platylepas ophiophila'' is found living in association with several species of sea snake as an ectosymbiont. The barnacle adheres to the snake's skin, and has ribs that penetrate the snake's skin to make the attachment more secure. Nevertheless, the barnacle usually becomes detached when the snake sheds its skin. Barnacles breed by internal fertilisation, so individuals of this species have to be located adjacent to another individual in order to reproduce. Despite the fact that sea snakes are mobile and generally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sessilia
Sessilia is an unranked clade of barnacles, comprising the barnacles without stalks, or acorn barnacles. They form a monophyletic group and are probably derived from stalked or goose barnacles. Sessilia is divided into two orders. The Verrucomorpha contain two families, Verrucidae and Neoverrucidae, and the remaining 14 families are in the order Balanomorpha The Balanomorpha are an order of barnacles, containing familiar acorn barnacles of the seashore. The order contains these families: * Austrobalanidae Newman & Ross, 1976 * Balanidae Leach, 1817 (acorn barnacles) * Bathylasmatidae Newman & Ro .... References External links * Barnacles Crustacean orders {{maxillopoda-stub da:Rur de:Seepocken pl:Pąkle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antenna (biology)
Antennae ( antenna), sometimes referred to as "feelers", are paired appendages used for Sensory system, sensing in arthropods. Antennae are connected to the first one or two Segmentation (biology), segments of the arthropod head. They vary widely in form but are always made of one or more jointed segments. While they are typically sensory organs, the exact nature of what they sense and how they sense it is not the same in all groups. Functions may variously include sensing tactition, touch, air motion, heat, vibration (sound), and especially insect olfaction, smell or gustation, taste. Antennae are sometimes modified for other purposes, such as mating, brooding, swimming, and even anchoring the arthropod to a substrate (biology), substrate. Larval arthropods have antennae that differ from those of the adult. Many crustaceans, for example, have free-swimming larvae that use their antennae for swimming. Antennae can also locate other group members if the insect lives in a group, lik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thoracica
Thoracica is an infraclass of crustaceans which contains the most familiar species of barnacles found on rocky coasts, such as ''Semibalanus balanoides'' and ''Chthamalus stellatus''. They have six well-developed limbs, and may be either stalked or sessile. The carapace is heavily calcified. The group includes free-living and commensal species. Classification This article follows Chan et al. (2021) and WoRMS in placing Thoracica as an infraclass of Thecostraca and in the following classification of thoracicans down to the level of family: : Infraclass Thoracica Darwin, 1854 :: Superorder Phosphatothoracica Gale, 2019 ::: Order Iblomorpha Buckeridge & Newman, 2006 :::: Family Iblidae Leach, 1825 :::: Family Idioiblidae Buckeridge & Newman, 2006 ::: Order †Eolepadomorpha Chan et al., 2021 :::: Family †Eolepadidae Buckeridge, 1983 :::: Family † Praelepadidae Chernyshev, 1930 :: Superorder Thoracicalcarea Gale, 2015 ::: Order Balanomorpha Pilsbry, 1916 :::: Superfamily Bal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapoda, decapods, ostracoda, seed shrimp, branchiopoda, branchiopods, argulidae, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopoda, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipoda, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata. It is now well accepted that the Hexapoda, hexapods emerged deep in the Crustacean group, with the completed group referred to as Pancrustacea. Some crustaceans (Remipedia, Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda) are more closely related to insects and the other hexapods than they are to certain other crustaceans. The 67,000 described species range in size from ''Stygotantulus, Stygotantulus stocki'' at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to and a mass of . Like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they ecdysis, moult to grow. They are distinguished from other groups of arthropods, such as insec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filter Feeder
Filter feeders are a sub-group of suspension feeding animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure. Some animals that use this method of feeding are clams, krill, sponges, baleen whales, and many fish (including some sharks). Some birds, such as flamingos and certain species of duck, are also filter feeders. Filter feeders can play an important role in clarifying water, and are therefore considered ecosystem engineers. They are also important in bioaccumulation and, as a result, as indicator organisms. Fish Most forage fish are filter feeders. For example, the Atlantic menhaden, a type of herring, lives on plankton caught in midwater. Adult menhaden can filter up to four gallons of water a minute and play an important role in clarifying ocean water. They are also a natural check to the deadly red tide. Extensive article on the role of menhaden in the ecosystem and poss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages. Arthropods are bilaterally symmetrical and their body possesses an external skeleton. In order to keep growing, they must go through stages of moulting, a process by which they shed their exoskeleton to reveal a new one. Some species have wings. They are an extremely diverse group, with up to 10 million species. The haemocoel, an arthropod's internal cavity, through which its haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, accommodates its interior organs; it has an open circulatory system. Like their exteriors, the internal organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acrothoracica
The Acrothoracica are an infraclass of barnacles. Acrothoracicans bore into calcareous material such as mollusc shells, coral, crinoids or hardgrounds, producing a slit-like hole in the surface known by the trace fossil name ''Rogerella''. Acrothoracicans are typically smaller than other types of barnacle, being only a few millimetres in length. Being protected by the hard surfaces into which they have bored, they have no solid carapace of plates like other barnacles but have a soft, sac-like body fixed to the surface by a chitinous disc at the front of the head. They have from four to six pairs of feathery limbs, or "cirri", which they project out of their borings to catch drifting detritus for food. The mouthparts consist of mandibles, maxillules and maxillae. One pair of cirri is close to these while the others are at the other end of the body. Each individual acrothoracican is either male or female. A dwarf male is sometimes found attached to the mantle or wall of a femal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
