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Barnacles
Enlarge picture
"Cirripedia" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904). The crab at the centre is nursing the externa of the parasitic cirripede Sacculina

"Cirripedia" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904). The crab at the centre is nursing the externa of the parasitic cirripede Sacculina
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Arthropoda
Subphylum:Crustacea
Class:Maxillopoda
Subclass:Thecostraca
Infraclass:Cirripedia
Burmeister, 1834
Superorders


Acrothoracica
Thoracica
Rhizocephala
A barnacle is a type of arthropod belonging to infraclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea and is hence distantly related to crabs and lobsters. Some authorities regard Cirripedia as a full class or subclass, and the orders listed at right are sometimes treated as superorders. Around 1,220 barnacle species are currently known. The name "Cirripedia" is Latin, meaning "curl-footed".

Barnacles were first fully studied and classified by Charles Darwin who published a series of monographs in 1851 and 1854. Darwin undertook this study at the suggestion of his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker, in order to understand at least one species before making the generalisations needed for his theory of evolution by natural selection [1].

Life cycle

Enlarge picture
Chthamalus stellatus
When an appropriate place is found, the cyprid larva cements itself headfirst to the surface and then undergoes metamorphosis into a juvenile barnacle. Typical barnacles develop six hard armour plates to surround and protect their bodies. For the rest of their lives they are cemented to the ground, using their feathery legs (cirri) to capture plankton and gametes when spawning. They are usually found in the intertidal zone.

Once metamorphosis is over and they have reached their adult form, barnacles will continue to grow, but not moult. Instead, they grow by adding new material to the ends of their heavily calcified plates.

Like many invertebrates, barnacles are hermaphroditic and alternate male and female roles over time. [2].

Barnacles often attach themselves to man-made structures, sometimes to the structure's detriment. Particularly in the case of ships, they are classified as fouling organisms. Other members of the class have quite a different mode of life. For example, members of the genus Sacculina are parasitic on crabs.

Some barnacles are edible by humans, and goose barnacles (e.g. Pollicipes polymerus) are treasured as a delicacy in Greece, Spain, and other Mediterranean countries. The resemblance of this barnacle's fleshy stalk to a goose's neck gave rise in ancient times to the notion that geese, or at least certain seagoing species of wild goose, literally grew from the barnacle. Most notably, the wild Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis), whose eggs and young were rarely seen by humans because it breeds in the remote Arctic, got its popular name because it was imagined to grow from gooseneck barnacles.

Classification

Enlarge picture
Balanidae, Mission Beach National Park, Queensland, Australia, 2002


This article follows Martin and Davis in placing Cirripedia as an infraclass of Thecostraca and in the following classification of cirripedes down to the level of orders [3]:

Infraclass Cirripedia Burmeister, 1834
  • Superorder Acrothoracica Gruvel, 1905
  • Order Pygophora Berndt, 1907
  • Order Apygophora Berndt, 1907
  • Superorder Rhizocephala Müller, 1862
  • Order Kentrogonida Delage, 1884
  • Order Akentrogonida Häfele, 1911
  • Superorder Thoracica Darwin, 1854
  • Order Pedunculata Lamarck, 1818
  • Order Sessilia Lamarck, 1818

Synonyms

Other names for this group of crustaceans include Thyrostraca, Cirrhopoda (meaning "tawny-footed"), Cirrhipoda, and Cirrhipedia.

References

1. ^ Étienne Benson. Charles Darwin. SparkNotes. Retrieved on 2007-08-30.
2. ^ Barnacle general biology. Museum Victoria (1996).
3. ^ Joel W. Martin & George E. Davis (2001). An Updated Classification of the Recent Crustacea. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. 

External links

Ernst Haeckel

Born January 16 1834(1834--)

Died July 9 1919 (aged 85)

Nationality

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Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature) is a book of lithographic and autotype prints by German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Originally published in sets of ten between 1899 and 1904 and as a complete volume in 1904, it consists of 100 prints of various organisms,
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Sacculina
Thompson, 1836

Species

''S. andersoni
S. atlantica
S. bicuspidata
S. bourdoni
S. carcini
S. gerbei
S. gibbsi
S. gonoplaxae
S.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Arthropoda
Latreille, 1829

Subphyla and Classes
  • Subphylum Trilobitomorpha
  • Trilobita - trilobites (extinct)
  • Subphylum Chelicerata

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crustaceans (Crustacea) are a large group of arthropods, comprising approximately 52,000 described species [1], and are usually treated as a subphylum [2].
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Maxillopoda
Dahl, 1956

Sub-classes

Thecostraca (1,320 species)
Tantulocarida (1,200 species)
Branchiura (200 species)
Pentastomida (100+ species)
Mystacocarida (12 species)

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Thecostraca
Gruvel, 1905

Infraclasses

Facetotecta
Ascothoracida
Cirripedia
Thecostraca are a group of marine invertebrates containing about 1,320 described species.
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Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister (January 15, 1807 - May 2, 1892) was a German zoologist and entomologist.

Burmeister was professor of Zoology at the Martin Luther University from 1837 to 1861.
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order (Latin: ordo, plural ordines) is a rank between class and family (termed a taxon at that rank). The superorder is a rank between class and order. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Code which applies.
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Thoracica
Darwin, 1854

Orders

Sessilia
Pedunculata

Thoracica is a superorder of crustaceans which contains the most familiar species of barnacles found on rocky coasts, such as Semibalanus balanoides and Chthamalus stellatus
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Rhizocephala
Müller, 1862

Orders

Kentrogonida
Akentrogonida
Rhizocephala are peculiar barnacles, parasitic on decapod crustaceans. Their bauplan is uniquely reduced in an extreme adaptation to their peculiar lifestyle.
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Arthropoda
Latreille, 1829

Subphyla and Classes
  • Subphylum Trilobitomorpha
  • Trilobita - trilobites (extinct)
  • Subphylum Chelicerata

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In zoology, an infraclass is a further subdivision of a subclass, but it is rarely used. The next rank below the infraclass would be the Order or Superorder. For example:
  • Phylum Arthropoda

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In life, a subphylum is a taxonomic rank intermediate between phylum and superclass. The rank of subdivision in plants and fungi is equivalent to subphylum.

Not all phyla are divided into subphyla.
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crustaceans (Crustacea) are a large group of arthropods, comprising approximately 52,000 described species [1], and are usually treated as a subphylum [2].
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Brachyura
Latreille, 1802

Superfamilies
  • Section Dromiacea
  • Homolodromioidea
  • Dromioidea
  • Homoloidea

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Nephropidae
Dana, 1852

Subfamilies and Genera
  • Neophoberinae
  • Acanthacaris
  • Thymopinae
  • Nephropsis

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class is the rank in the scientific classification of organisms in biology below Phylum and above Order.

For example, Mammalia is the class used in the classification of dogs, whose phylum is Chordata (animals with notochords) and order is Carnivora (mammals that eat meat).
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class is the rank in the scientific classification of organisms in biology below Phylum and above Order.

For example, Mammalia is the class used in the classification of dogs, whose phylum is Chordata (animals with notochords) and order is Carnivora (mammals that eat meat).
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order (Latin: ordo, plural ordines) is a rank between class and family (termed a taxon at that rank). The superorder is a rank between class and order. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Code which applies.
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species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
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Charles Robert Darwin

At the age of 51, Charles Darwin had just published On the Origin of Species.
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A monograph is a scholarly book or a treatise on a single subject or a group of related subjects, usually written by one person. It is a one-time publication that is complete in itself. It may refer to a detailed, well-documented work on a limited subject or a person.
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Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, OM, GCSI, MD, FRS (June 30, 1817 – December 10, 1911) was an English botanist and explorer.

Early life and voyage on HMS Erebus

Hooker was born in Halesworth, Suffolk.
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Natural selection is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less
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Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's form or structure through cell growth and differentiation.
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Plate may refer to:
  • Plate (dishware)
  • Plate (structures), in mechanics
  • A flat piece of metal used in orthopedics to connect the two parts of a broken bone, such as a dynamic compression plate
  • Plate armor, body armor made of metal plates

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