 |
|
Barnacles go to great lengths to mate
February 07, 2008Compelled to mate, yet firmly attached to the rock, barnacles have evolved the longest penis of any animal for their size - up to 8 times their body length - so they can find and fertilize distant neighbours.
Graduate student Christopher Neufeld and Dr. Richard Palmer from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta have shown that barnacles appear to have acquired the capacity to change the size and shape of their penises to closely match local wave conditions. When wave action is light, a longer (thinner) penis can reach more mates, but at times of higher wave action, a shorter (stouter) penis is more manoeuvrable in flow and therefore can reach more mates.
The research, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that sexual selection - competition with other males, female choice, sexual conflict between males and females - is not required to explain variation in genital form. In barnacles, this variation appears to be driven largely by the hydrodynamic conditions experienced under breaking waves.
University of Alberta
University of Alberta
Barnacles News and Current Barnacles Events RSSPacific coast turning more acidic
An international team of scientists surveying the waters of the continental shelf off the West Coast of North America has discovered for the first time high levels of acidified ocean water within 20 miles of the shoreline, raising concern for marine ecosystems from Canada to Mexico.
Northern Right Whales Head South to Give Birth, Leave Genetic "Fingerprints" with NOAA Researchers
Like many northerners who head south to warmer climates for the winter, many Northern right whales also head south in November and stay into April.
480-million-year-old fossil sheds light on 150-year-old paleontological mystery
Discovery of an exceptional fossil specimen in southeastern Morocco that preserves evidence of the animal's soft tissues has solved a paleontological puzzle about the origins of an extinct group of bizarre slug-like animals with rows of mineralized armor plates on their backs, according to a paper in Nature.
Living laboratory found on shoreline statues
A team from the University of Liverpool's School of Biological Sciences have found that the 100 life-size statues which make up Antony Gormley's 'Another Place' art installation on Crosby Beach have become a haven for a settlement of a particular breed of barnacle-Elminius modestus.
Overfishing puts Southern California kelp forest ecosystems at risk, report scientists
Kelp forest ecosystems that span the West Coast -- from Alaska to Mexico's Baja Peninsula -- are at greater risk from overfishing than from the effects of run-off from fertilizers or sewage on the shore.
Yale researchers find environmental toxins disruptive to hearing in mammals
Yale School of Medicine researchers have new data showing chloride ions are critical to hearing in mammals, which builds on previous research showing a chemical used to keep barnacles off boats might disrupt the balance of these ions in ear cells.
Shark skin saves naval industry money
Covering ship hulls with artificial shark skin could help ships sailing smoothly. The growth of marine organisms such as barnacles on ship hulls is a major cause of increased energy costs in the naval industry. Shark skin offers a structural design that prevents this so called 'bio-fouling'.
Map For Protection Of Sea Animals
The Russian Branch of the WWF has managed to summarize vast experimental data accumulated by Russian maritime biologists and geographers. This effort resulted in the Map of maritime protected natural territories of Russia. The map contains well-known preserves and reserves completely or partially located on the sea coast, and in addition, the map depicts 27 maritime areas worth becoming specially protected territories. The issue has become now extremely acute as regards to what territories should be protected in the spacious seas surrounding Russia: active development of the shelf is underway, and the process will embrace more and more new territories. To avoid aggravation of ecological cri
Discarded human debris threatens global biodiversity
Discarded human debris is encouraging colonization of exotic marine animals in the world`s oceans and threatening global biodiversity, particularly in the Southern Ocean. The findings, reported in this week`s NATURE, are based on a 10-year study of human litter (mostly plastic) washed ashore on 30 remote islands around the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. David Barnes of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) found that man-made rubbish in the seas, especially plastics, has almost doubled the spread of alien species in the subtropics and more than tripled it at high latitudes. Since the creation of plastics over 50 years ago, floating litter has provided mobile homes for marine organisms
Seamounts Of The South-west Pacific : Exceptional Biodiversity And Endemism
Seamounts are exceptionally rich environments biologically which have been little studied in any detail. Research on about 20 such undersea mountains in the South-West Pacific has recently revealed that the diversity and endemism among faunal communities living on these biotopes are much greater than had hitherto been assumed. Over 850 species have been discovered about a third of which are new to science and considered to be endemics. Species compositions of communities differ sharply between one cluster or chain of seamounts and another. These environments would therefore function as island ecosystems where the fauna's isolation would result in a high degree of speciation. The results emph
More Barnacles News Articles
 | Darwin and the Barnacle: The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough by Rebecca Stott "In Darwin and the Barnacle...ideas light up like matches on each page."—John Leonard, Harper's A scientific detective story that illuminates the remarkable saga of Darwin's greatest achievement. Pairing Charles Darwin and a rare species of barnacle as her unlikely protagonists, Rebecca Stott has written an absorbing work of history that guides readers through the treacherous shoals of... |
 | A Taxonomy of Barnacles: A Novel by Galt Niederhoffer Set in the baronial Upper East Side apartment of Barry Barnacle, among giant aquariums, a sprawling shell collection, and a jungle room with a three-toed sloth and a macaque, this is the story of the six Barnacle daughters, aged ten to twenty-nine. As the story begins, one daughter has returned home secretly pregnant, and she and her sister are sneaking out at night to meet the Finch twins in the... |
| Barnacle Parp's Chain Saw Guide: Buying, Using, and Maintaining Gas & Electric Chain Saws by Walter Hall | |
| NORA: The Real Life of Molly Bloom by Brenda Maddox In 1904, having known each other for only three months, a young woman named Nora Barnacle and a not yet famous writer named James Joyce left Ireland together for Europe -- unwed. So began a deep and complex partnership, and eventually a marriage, which endured for thirty-seven years. This is the true story of Nora, the woman who, transformed by Joyce's imagination, became Molly Bloom,... | |
| Barnacle Parp's New Chain Saw Guide by Walter Hall | |
 | Pegleg Gets Stumped (Barnacle Barb & Her Pirate Crew) by Nadia Higgins |
 | Walk the Plank, Plankton (Barnacle Barb & Her Pirate Crew) by Nadia Higgins |
| Polar bear predatory behaviour toward molting barnacle geese and nesting glaucous gulls on Spitsbergen.: An article from: Arctic by Lech Stempniewicz This digital document is an article from Arctic, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2006. The length of the article is 3188 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Polar bear... | |
| The headstrong houseboat;: Or, Barnacles are better than blowouts, but beware of a leaky basement, by William C Anderson | |
 | Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa Like Wayson Choy and David Bezmozgis before him, Anthony De Sa captures, in stories brimming with life, the innocent dreams and bitter disappointments of the immigrant experience.At the heart of this collection of intimately linked stories is the relationship between a father and his son. A young fisherman washes up nearly dead on the shores of Newfoundland. It is Manuel Rebelo who has tried to... |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |