Barnacles Go To Unbelievable Lengths To Hook Up | Deep Look

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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---+ More great Deep Look episodes:

These Feisty Hermit Crabs Brawl Over Snail Shells | Deep Look

Skeleton Shrimp Use 18 Appendages to Feed, Fight and ... Frolic | Deep Look

Once a Spawn a Time: Horseshoe Crabs Mob the Beach | Deep Look

---+ Shoutout!

🏆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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[dracodracarys]

barnacles are basically shrimp cosplaying as clams

[trinomial-nomenclature]

I wish you would have mentioned how they get their "shell" because the little babies that look for a spot to anchor down didn't have a shell, then all of a sudden it did. I'm assuming they make their own shell rather than finding one, like hermit crabs, so it would have been nice to know how they make that incredibly hard and sharp, foot slicing shell.

[Sssaaatttuuurrrnnn]

Wow, I had no idea they were crustaceans and had so many moving legs. That 3D segment at 1:28 did a fantastic job of getting that across -- I had stopped the video to go look for images of what it's like inside the shell but none were as good as when I kept watching.

[aichi_da]

"Barnacius, we meet again!"
"Have at you!"
"En garde!"
*proceeds to fertilize each other*

[jml]

@1:46 "I'm hung like a barnacle."

"You mean you're mostly sedentary and attached to one spot?"

"No, that's not what I meant."

[josevilla]

I've been following this amazing channel for more than 2 years, and everytime it's even better! Amazing work from all the team at Deep Look!

[SeraphimKnight]

This has some heavy implications for Barnacle Boy and the Spongebob Squarepants fandom.

[tgnm]

A perfect opportunity to learn about barnacle. I never actually knew they actually have a body since they are in their shell all the time.
Also, Congratulation for the 150th episode on YouTube Deep Look!

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Deep look is so well produced: the subjects, the research, the music, the narration, and the cinematography are all so well thought out and executed. I'm glad I found you guys (5?) years ago and I'm super excited to see what you'll cover next!

[thywiz]

Wow! usually animals like barnacles are overlooked as sea garbage but they are much more interesting than they look, great video!

[crimsonfirelily]

I always thought Barnacles were really unique. I had never really seen how beautiful they are in the water.
They are an interesting crustacean. Yes they hurt when you step on them but I am sure that's just their protection.
Congratulations on 150 episodes!👏 🎉 I have learned so much and been fascinated by Deep Look for some time now. I look forward to 150 episodes + more! 💜✌

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I always love the amount of effort you guys put into shooting footage for each video!

[chrisberg]

Honestly for the longest time thought barnacles were just a build up of ocean matter, did not realize they were living, and now I want to throw up

[raccoonchild]

Amazing... So that's what barnacles are. Never bothered learning about them before this video but they're so much weirder than I expected!
Love from Argentina 🇦🇷

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