Acorn barnacles might look like jagged little rocks at low tide, but they have a surprisingly wild sex life. These crusty little animals — related to crabs and shrimp — have the longest penis of any animal relative to their body size. It's up to eight times the length of the barnacle itself!
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When it comes to mating, acorn barnacles have a challenge. How do you find a date when you’re permanently stuck to a rock, pier or boat hull?
Fortunately for them, barnacles are packing the right equipment to get the job done. They have the longest penis of any animal relative to their body size.
But the barnacle’s male organ isn’t just impressive because of its length. It can smell and taste and the tip can feel around to find neighbors that have ripe ovaries inside.
“It is very clear that the barnacle’s penis is really much more of a sensory organ that also delivers sperm,” says Peter Raimondi, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
--- What do barnacles eat?
Barnacles use their long feathery legs called cirri to strain plankton and debris right out of the water. Barnacles are often found in the intertidal zone where the waves churn up seaweed and carrion into small pieces that barnacles can eat.
--- How do barnacles attach to rocks?
Free-swimming mature barnacle larvae called cyprids attach themselves to rocks, piers, boat hulls and other underwater surfaces with a special cement that they excrete from glands between their antennae. The young barnacle then builds a ring of protective shell around itself.
--- What are barnacles related to?
From the outside, barnacles may look more like clams or mussels. But barnacles are actually crustaceans that are more closely related to shrimp and crabs.
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🏆Congratulations🏆 to Kamea Webster on our Deep Look Community Tab for correctly answering our GIF challenge! The entire structure of the barnacle legs is called the cirral fan!
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