- Sep 13, 2002
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Barnacles are found wherever hard surfaces meet seawater, including boats, moorings and whale heads. They look like little rocks, but they’re actually crustaceans—close relatives of crabs and shrimp. While their relatives walk about, barnacles affix themselves to a surface, and filter food from the water with protruding paddling legs. This stationary life poses a problem when it comes to mating, especially since barnacles apparently have to fertilise each other internally.
They do so with a huge penis, which blindly reaches across into neighbouring shells and deposits sperm inside. This giant organ can stretch up to eight times a barnacle’s own body length, making it proportionately the biggest penis in the animal world. Each individual can fertilise and be fertilised by all of its neighbours. And if there’s no one else within reach, the barnacles apparently fertilise themselves.
They do so with a huge penis, which blindly reaches across into neighbouring shells and deposits sperm inside. This giant organ can stretch up to eight times a barnacle’s own body length, making it proportionately the biggest penis in the animal world. Each individual can fertilise and be fertilised by all of its neighbours. And if there’s no one else within reach, the barnacles apparently fertilise themselves.