Barnacle Barnacles are very common along the coasts of New England,
where they live in large groups on wave exposed rocks. There are many
species of barnacles, and they are identified by the shape and
position of the plates of their exoskeleton. They are crustaceans,
just like lobsters, crabs, and shrimp. They are simultaneous
hermaphrodites, both male and female in the same body. Barnacles are
active filter feeders. When water passes by them, they "open up"
(which many children on my beach thought was the barnacle trying to
bite them), and extend delicate appendages called cirripedia. These
are used to strain the water for plankton. When they are forced to
love close together, they have a tall, tower-like shape, and when
there's not as many barnacles that survive in a year, they have a
flatter, more dome-like shape.
(Balanus sp., Semibalanus sp., Cthamalus sp.)
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