Barnacles, now everyone seems to be just a strange creature fixed on the reef, stretching out their tentacles to filter plankton, can be divided into two categories according to their appearance, one is "barnacles" in the narrow sense, which is very common, and the other is called "Minghe", which does not seem to be related to any other animal, but if you think about it carefully, you will find that this product is very similar to shrimp. Barnacle larvae are very similar to shrimp larvae, except that the shell of barnacles does not grow the same as shrimp, and unlike shrimp running around, barnacle larvae will find the reef and merge into one. It can be understood that barnacles are close relatives of shrimp, the difference is that the shape of the shell is different, the way of life is different, and the tentacles are missing a few joints. Barnacles are also called "vine feet" by scientists because of their special tentacle shapes, and barnacles are also classified as "vine feet". So, how did the good "shrimp" evolve into the current virtue?
Let's talk about this slowly. Judging from the current geological excavations, barnacles suddenly appeared on the earth about 3.3 years ago. At that time, brachiopods stood at the top of the food chain, and barnacles appeared very small. However, about 250 million years ago, the Siberian supervolcano erupted, and the brachiopods almost disappeared, ushering in a golden age of barnacles. Unlike other sessile organisms, which "burrow" and "secrete minerals", barnacles release a quick-drying glue called barnacle glue, which sticks to the reef at sea level when it hits the intertidal reef area by the tide. Here, not only can you easily eat plankton in the sea, but you can also escape the dangerous environment of the seabed. So in geological research, barnacle fossils are also used to indicate the location of sea level.
However, when the Cretaceous period came, the climate began to warm and sea levels rose, and barnacles had a hard time. Not only did the "glue-fixing" counterparts such as mussels start to grab jobs nearby, but worse, the crabs are coming. Crabs can latch onto reefs without being swept away by currents, and they can also tear open the shells of barnacles and eat the barnacles' meat stems. It was from here that the barnacles began to evolve like a copy.
In order to avoid the threat of crabs, some barnacles have evolved layers of carapace, but the meat stems are still fragile, so the barnacle meat stems of the order of the armor lotus are wrapped in a layer, which is represented by the common "turtle feet" and "gooseneck barnacles" today.
65 million years ago, a meteorite that smashed on the earth ended the Mesozoic Era, diatoms plankton spurted out, and the continent split into long coastlines, which created an opportunity for barnacles to flourish, barnacles developed to a new height, and many barnacles began to evolve to "expansion". First of all, one of the barnacles has evolved a "root" with strong penetrating power, which can pierce through the crab shell, making the former natural enemies miserable, and even evolved the "crab slave", which is better to skip here because the picture will make people uncomfortable. Not only crabs, but even the "old guns" that have been in the ocean for hundreds of millions of years - sea turtles, are also deeply affected, when turtles are old and weak, it is easy to be poisoned by barnacles, so there is a "turtle barnacle family", they are fixed on the turtle shell and can slowly move forward, endangering the life of the turtle. At the same time, barnacles also made their way to cetaceans, evolving "whale barnacles", which are fixed on the whale's reproductive system or folds and other parts of the water that flow slowly, and "heterobarnacles" even fix on the fins of fast-flowing fish.
It is worth noting that these barnacles are still fixed on baleen whales that swim slowly and have more folds, and those that swim fast like dolphins can be seen at a glance that they are not good-looking. For a shark that swims fast and has a shield scale on its body, barnacles are logically incomprehensible. However, "shark barnacles" can lie dormant in the deep sea, waiting for weakened or injured sharks, and once their prey is close, they will find an opportunity to stick to the shark, and their vine feet will become short, swollen tentacles, exposed like a purple sarcoma. What's even more terrifying is the bottom of the "shark barnacle", through the shark's gills, nostrils, eye sockets and even wounds, stretching out dense roots, constantly sucking the shark's flesh and blood from the inside, and will also release some paralyzing substance, so that the shark has to give up mating and other activities, and slowly die.
Barnacles still have many branches, but the way they are fixed and the effects they have on other marine life can cause discomfort, so I won't go into too much detail here. Is there anything you'd like to share about barnacles