Marine Life

Barnacles
(Cirripedia)
Courtesy of Tom Haight

Although these animals resemble types of mollusks they are actually crustaceans more closely related to crabs and shrimp. Barnacles feed by filtering out planktonic food from the water. They accomplish this by waving their feather-like legs in the water which "capture" their food. Many barnacles are hermaphroditic (containing both male and female sex organs). Barnacles start out as plankton later settling out on to some surface to spend the rest of their life in that one place.