The barnacle, for those who don't know it, is a plant, but it's actually an arthropod that lives in the ocean and attaches itself to rough surfaces.

At first, many scientists were baffled by the appearance of barnacles, believing that they belonged to shellfish like oysters,but with in-depth research, it turns out that the barnacles are related to shrimp and crabs, and both belong to crustacean species. Barnacles generally go through three stages of growth before they reach adulthood: nodule larvae, glandular larvae, and adults. And in the case of barnacles, they are already able to move around freely as unsegmented larvae.

So for barnacles at this time, they slowly begin to look for the place where they will live for the rest of their lives. And this place must fulfill 3 conditions: firstly, the water flow is slow, secondly, the surface is rough, and thirdly, the light is dark!

First they slide their tentacles to choose a suitable place. This is because when a barnacle finds a place it is more comfortable with, it will basically use its tentacles to touch its surface first before properly probing and adjusting it.

Then the barnacle will secrete colloid (strong adhesive force) from its tentacles and stick to the surface of the object it needs to attach itself to, so that it slowly develops into a barnacle body, and then finally generates a limestone shell and permanently attaches itself to this object. So that's why when you see pictures and videos of whales on the internet, you'll notice that there's rarely a clean spot on the whale's body, because there are more or less grayish-white patches on their bodies, and these so-called patches are barnacles.

It is well known that the barnacle belongs to is a hermaphroditic group of marine organisms. But even when they are hermaphrodites, they are heterozygous and rarely fertilize themselves, because barnacles are permanently immobile when attached to an object!

So if a barnacle wants to mate with its partner, then only a male barnacle with long enough genitals can do it. So as long as the barnacle is within the range, the male barnacle only needs to extend his genitals into the body of the female barnacle attached nearby in order to fertilize it.

After mating, the female barnacle will incubate for one to two months, then produce the mature barnacle larvae, leaving them to follow the currents so the larvae can begin another cycle of growth in the ocean. The barnacle develops from egg to adult in 3 stages: the unsegmented larva, the glandular larva and the adult. There is also a high incidence of barnacle reproduction from April to October each year, but the amount of eggs laid depends on the size of the female barnacle and the temperature of the water.

In fact, for barnacles, the reason why they like to attach to whales and sea turtles is because the surface of the whale's body is rough and uneven, and it doesn't swim very fast, which makes it suitable for barnacles to attach and grow.

Of course, in addition to whales, barnacles also attach to sea turtles, which are slower swimmers and have uneven shells that attract large numbers of barnacles. The reason why barnacles are so painful to whales and sea turtles is because they are so strong that over time they not only affect their swimming speed, but also their physical development.

Thus aggravating the survival of marine life like whales and sea turtles. For example:Some cause these marine creatures to be unable to live normally, some die because they can't stand the massive attachment of too many barnacles, and so on! So we can see that many whales in TV will often knock down the barnacles attached to themselves by slapping the surface of the sea and crashing into ships, so as to alleviate their own pain.

Of course, the barnacles are not only attached to the bodies of marine creatures, but also to ships that have been traveling in the ocean for a long time, which can also suffer from barnacles!