---
title: "What the sources say about the Goose Barnacle | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "49 claims from the Goose Barnacle profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
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# What the sources say about the Goose Barnacle (*Lepas anatifera*)

> 49 claims from the Goose Barnacle profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Goose Barnacle](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/goose-barnacle/)

## Lepas anatifera (duck barnacle). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Lepas_anatifera/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A crustacean that glues itself to driftwood, buoys and turtles and rides them across the open ocean. | is a pelagic barnacle that can be found attached to a variety of floating objects, including driftwood, bottles, boats, buoys, macroalgal rafts, and turtles (note: tagline; crustacean from jonker-2015 (only sessile crustaceans)) |
| Open ocean in most tropical and temperate seas, attached to floating objects | is a cosmopolitan barnacle, inhabiting most tropical and temperate seas throughout the world (note: stats.habitat) |
| Open ocean in most tropical and temperate seas, attached to floating objects | is a pelagic barnacle that can be found attached to a variety of floating objects (note: stats.habitat) |
| Food filtered from the water, plus shrimp, polyps and young flying fish caught with its cirri | is predatory, capturing prey (shrimp, polyps, young flying fish) with the cirri. Goose barnacles also filter currents (note: stats.diet) |
| A goose barnacle does not move unless it is torn from that surface. | Goose barnacles are sessile; they do not move unless they are torn from their current substrate. |
| Lepas anatifera is a pelagic barnacle | Lepas anatifera is a pelagic barnacle |
| pelagic means open ocean | An aquatic biome consisting of the open ocean, far from land (note: ADW glossary definition of pelagic) |
| It can be found attached to driftwood, bottles, boats, buoys, macroalgal rafts, and turtles. | is a pelagic barnacle that can be found attached to a variety of floating objects, including driftwood, bottles, boats, buoys, macroalgal rafts, and turtles |
| It lives in most tropical and temperate seas around the world | is a cosmopolitan barnacle, inhabiting most tropical and temperate seas throughout the world |
| most abundant where the water is warmer than 18 to 20 degrees Celsius | This species is most abundant in tropical and subtropical waters where sea temperatures exceed 18-20 ºC. (note: exceed = warmer than) |
| Its heart-shaped shell, the capitulum, can grow up to 5 cm long. | its heart-shaped bivalve shell, called a capitulum, that can grow up to 5 cm in length |
| The barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) was once thought to start life as a goose barnacle because no one had ever seen its nest. | The barnacle goose ( Branta leucopsis ) was once thought to start life as a goose barnacle ( Lepas anatifera ) because no one had ever seen its nest. |
| The barnacle feeds with frills on its limbs called cirri | Barnacles feed by using tentacular frills on their limbs called cirri. |
| which it pushes out from between its shell plates | The legs and cirri are extended from between the valves of the captiulum. |
| It filters currents, but it is also predatory, capturing prey (shrimp, polyps, young flying fish) with the cirri. | is predatory, capturing prey (shrimp, polyps, young flying fish) with the cirri. Goose barnacles also filter currents |
| Adults are protected by a shell but may still be eaten by gastropods, starfish and crabs. | Adult Lepas anatifera are protected by an outer shell, but still may be preyed on by gastropods, starfish, crabs, and others. |
| Fiona pinnata, a pelagic sea slug, is a known predator. | Fiona pinnata , a pelagic sea slug, is a known predator of Lepas anatifera |
| The sea slug uses its jaws to grasp the barnacle near the junction of the stalk and shell, and then uses its radula, a tongue studded with tiny teeth, to rasp. The barnacle soon gapes open, allowing the sea slug to consume the prey. | The sea slug uses its jaws to grasp the barnacle near the junction of the stalk and shell, and then uses its radula to rasp. The barnacle soon gapes open, allowing the sea slug to consume the prey. (note: radula glossed with its general definition) |
| Each barnacle is a hermaphrodite, yet it still needs a partner. | Lepas anatifera is hermaphroditic and individuals cross fertilize via a copulatory organ |
| The young hatch as free-swimming larvae that go through six stages | hatch into free swimming larvae that undergo six specialized naupliar stages |
| and then turn into a cyprid, a non-feeding stage that drifts until it finds something to settle on | The larvae then transforms into a cyprid, which is a non-feeding search and settlement stage. The cyprid larvae drift along the ocean currents until it identifies and attaches to a substratum. |
| Not Evaluated | IUCN Red List Not Evaluated (note: stats.conservationStatus only, not stated in body or FAQs; GBIF's copy of the Red List has no assessment for Lepas anatifera and Crossref has no assessment DOI (prefetch, 2026-10-11)) |
| People once believed the barnacle goose began life as one of these barnacles, because nobody had ever found the bird's nest. | was once thought to start life as a goose barnacle ( Lepas anatifera ) because no one had ever seen its nest (note: FAQ 1) |
| Its shell, the capitulum, tops out at 5 cm, which is 50 mm. | its heart-shaped bivalve shell, called a capitulum, that can grow up to 5 cm in length (note: FAQ 2) |
| Almost anything that floats: driftwood, bottles, boats, buoys, rafts of seaweed and turtles. | can be found attached to a variety of floating objects, including driftwood, bottles, boats, buoys, macroalgal rafts, and turtles (note: FAQ 3; 'almost anything that floats' paraphrases 'a variety of floating objects') |
| It also turns up on fixed objects such as rocks and offshore structures. | It can also be found on fixed objects such as rocks and off-shore structures. (note: FAQ 3) |
| which is 50 mm | Range length 50 (high) mm (note: FAQ 2; 5 cm = 50 mm, and ADW's own range length agrees) |
| It glues itself to driftwood, buoys and turtles | is a pelagic barnacle that can be found attached to a variety of floating objects, including driftwood, bottles, boats, buoys, macroalgal rafts, and turtles (note: vibe.reason, same quote as the body) |
| rides them across the open ocean | An aquatic biome consisting of the open ocean, far from land (note: vibe.reason, same quote as the body) |

## Jonker et al. (2012). Unusual adhesive production system in the barnacle Lepas anatifera: An ultrastructural and histochemical investigation. Journal of Morphology.

https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.20067

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Makes a glue whose molecular adhesion differs from every other permanently gluing marine animal studied to date | the molecular adhesion of barnacles differs from all other permanently gluing marine animals studied to date (note: stats.superpower) |
| It makes its glue in large single-cell glands, each 70 to 180 micrometres across. | All components for the glue originated from large single-cell glands (70-180 μm). |
| Staining tests found that two chemicals, L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine and phosphoserine, are missing from the glue-making tissue. | Staining (including immunostaining) showed that L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine and phosphoserine were not present in the glue producing tissues |
| That showed barnacle glue works differently from that of every other permanently gluing marine animal studied to date. | demonstrating that the molecular adhesion of barnacles differs from all other permanently gluing marine animals studied to date |
| the mechanisms that keep the glue liquid inside the body, and turn it into hard cement, appear to be unknown | the barnacle adhesive system appears to utilize completely different and unknown mechanisms for maintaining the liquid state of the glue within the body, as well as unidentified mechanisms for the conversion of extruded glue into hard cement |
| Two chemicals, L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine and phosphoserine, did not show up in the tissue that makes it. | L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine and phosphoserine were not present in the glue producing tissues (note: FAQ 4) |
| That result showed barnacles stick at the molecular level in a different way from all other permanently gluing marine animals studied to date. | demonstrating that the molecular adhesion of barnacles differs from all other permanently gluing marine animals studied to date (note: FAQ 4) |

## Jonker et al. (2015). The chemistry of stalked barnacle adhesive (Lepas anatifera). Interface Focus.

https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2014.0062

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Barnacles are the only sessile crustaceans: they glue the base of their bodies to a surface. | Barnacles are the only sessile crustaceans; they glue the base of their bodies to a variety of materials |
| This barnacle is also attached by a membranous base, while the other species examined before it have chalky baseplates. | Lepas anatifera is adhered to the substratum via a membranous base, whereas the other species examined previously possess calcareous baseplates. |
| A crustacean | Barnacles are the only sessile crustaceans (note: tagline) |

## Domínguez-Pérez et al. (2021). Proteogenomic Characterization of the Cement and Adhesive Gland of the Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacle Lepas anatifera. International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22073370

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Cross-fertilization is required, so the barnacles cluster in turfs close enough to mate. | They need to cluster in turfs close enough to mate to conspecifics, since despite being hermaphroditic, require cross-fertilization (note: the source's own 'since' carries the 'so') |

## Howard & Scott (1959). Predaceous Feeding in Two Common Gooseneck Barnacles. Science.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.129.3350.717

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A 1959 study of this species and one other gooseneck barnacle found both to be relatively unselective omnivores that at times behave like predatory carnivores | Lepas anatifera and Mitella polymerus, while relatively unselective omnivores, behave at times like predatory macrophagous carnivores. (note: 1959 is the paper's year (Science 129:717); the two species are Lepas anatifera and Mitella polymerus, so the sentence names both) |
| When large prey was available, the barnacles caught and handled it well | Observations suggest a greater range of food size for gooseneck barnacles than is generally suspected and clearly indicate that large organisms, when available, are effectively captured and handled |

## Stelfox et al. (2020). Minimum drift times infer trajectories of ghost nets found in the Maldives. Marine Pollution Bulletin.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111037

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| That size works as a clock. Researchers in the Maldives used the capitulum length of these barnacles, along with how much of a net was covered in growth, to estimate the minimum time eight ghost nets (lost fishing nets) had drifted | This study explores methods to estimate minimum drift times of ghost nets found in the Maldives with the aim of identifying a putative origin. We highlight that percentage cover of biofouling organisms and capitulum length of Lepas anatifera are two methods that provide these estimates. (note: ghost nets = abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (abstract's last sentence)) |
| eight ghost nets (lost fishing nets) had drifted: between 7.5 and 101 days | Eight ghost nets were collected in the Maldives and estimated drift times ranged between 7.5 and 101 days. |

## Mello et al. (2023). Tarballs on the Brazilian coast in late 2022 sustain Lepas anatifera Linnaeus, 1758 (Crustacea: Cirripedia): Occurrence and risk of petroleum hydrocarbon ingestion. Science of The Total Environment.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164981

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Barnacles on tarballs from Brazilian beaches measured 0.122 to 2.20 cm, which suggested the tarballs had been floating for at least a month. | The size of the barnacles varied from 0.122 to 2.20 cm, suggesting that the tarballs had been floating in the ocean for at least a month. |
| tarballs from Brazilian beaches | tarballs sampled from beaches in the Brazilian states of Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte |

## Mghili et al. (2022). Marine macroinvertebrates fouled in marine anthropogenic litter in the Moroccan Mediterranean. Marine Pollution Bulletin.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114266

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| On litter stranded on two Moroccan Mediterranean beaches, almost all of it plastic | Rafting vectors were almost exclusively made up of plastics |
| On litter stranded on two Moroccan Mediterranean beaches | we examined the fouling organisms on different types of litter stranded on two beaches of the Moroccan Mediterranean |
| it was one of the most common fouling species | The most common fouling species were the crustacean Lepas pectinata, Lepas anatifera, Perforatus perforatus, and bryozoan species. |