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BARNACLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 409 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARNACLE , a name applied to See also:

Crustacea of the See also:division Cirripedia or See also:Thyrostraca. Originally, the name was given to the stalked barnacles (Lepadidae of C. See also:Darwin), which attach themselves in See also:great See also:numbers to See also:drift-See also:wood and other See also:objects floating in the See also:sea and are one of the See also:chief agents in the fouling of See also:ships' bottoms during See also:long voyages. The sessile barnacles (Balanidae of Darwin) or " See also:acorn-shells " are found in myriads, encrusting the rocks between See also:tide-marks on all coasts. One of 409 the most extraordinary and persistent myths of See also:medieval natural See also:history, dating back to the 12th See also:century at least, was the cause of transferring to these organisms the name of the barnack or bernacle See also:goose (Bernicla branta). This See also:bird is a See also:winter visitor to See also:Britain, and its See also:Arctic nesting-places being then unknown, it was fabled to originate within the See also:shell-like See also:fruit of a See also:tree growing by the sea-See also:shore. In some variants of the See also:story this shell is said to grow as, a See also:kind of See also:mushroom on rotting See also:timber in the sea, and is obviously one of the barnacles of the genus Lepas. Even after 1. Scalpellum rostratum, Darwin, See also:sponges, New See also:South See also:Wales; Philippine Islands. (4'), tergum; (4"), Scutum. 2. Pollicipes cornucopiae, Leach, 5.

Balanus tintinnabulum, Linn., See also:

European seas. See also:Atlantic. 3. Tubicinella trachealis, See also:Shaw, 5'. See also:Section of Balanus, Linn. attached to whales. 6. Coronula diadema, Linn., at- 4. Acasta sulcata, Lamk., in tached to whales. the scientific study of See also:zoology had replaced the fabulous tales of medieval writers, it was a long See also:time before the true See also:affinities of the barnacles were appreciated, and they were at first classed with the See also:Mollusca, some of which they closely resemble in See also:external See also:appearance. It was not till See also:Vaughan See also:Thompson demonstrated, in 183o, their development from a See also:free-See also:swimming and typically Crustacean larva that it came to be recognized that, in See also:Huxley's graphic phrase, " a barnacle may be said to be a Crustacean fixed by its See also:head and kicking the See also:food into its mouth with its legs." For a systematic See also:account of the barnacles and their See also:allies, see the See also:article THYROSTRACA.

End of Article: BARNACLE

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