Poorly-Endowed Barnacles Overthrow 150-Year-Old Belief
In absolute terms, the blue whale has the largest penis of any animal—a huge mobile appendage that can reach 10 feet in length. But the blue whale itself is enormous. If you take body size into account, the animal kingdom’s champion penis belongs to a much smaller creature, and one that often lives on the faces of whales. It’s the barnacle.
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. Since most barnacles are hermaphrodites, every 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.
This view of barnacle sex has been a stalwart of textbooks ever since a barnacle-obsessed Charles Darwin devoted eight difficult years of his life to these strange creatures, and published an epic four-volume monograph on their biology. Here he is, waxing wonderstruck about their penises:
“The males are attached at a considerable distance from the orifice of the sack of the female, into which the spermatozoa have to be conveyed; and to effect this, the probosciformed penis is wonderfully developed, so that in Cryptophialus, when fully extended, it must equal between eight and nine times the entire length of the animal!”
But barnacles still hold surprises. Graduate student Marjan Barazandeh from the University of Alberta has found clear evidence that the gooseneck barnacle Pollicipes polymerus does something that barnacles are really not meant to do—it spermcasts. That is, individuals can fertilise each other by ejaculating directly into the surrounding water and sieving out each other’s sperm. “These observations overturn over a century of beliefs about what barnacles can, or cannot, do,” she writes.
Barazandeh, together with fellow student Chris Neufeld and team leader Richard Palmer, collected almost 600 gooseneck barnacles from Canada’s west coast, and confirmed that their penises are shorter and less stretchy than those of their more famously endowed kin. They only extend to two thirds of the animal’s body.
[An interlude: How, you might ask, does one measure the penis of a barnacle? I will tell you. To measure the relaxed penis, Neufeld just pulled it out and assessed it under a microscope. To measure one in all its fully extended glory, he needed the following contraption: a system of pulleys, which controls an open bottle, which leads to a rubber tube, which is connected to a hypodermic needle, which feeds into a capillary tube, which is glued to the base of a severed barnacle penis. All of these elements are full of seawater. By using the pulleys to raise and lower the bottle, he could control the pressure in the needle and carefully pump a specific amount of water into the penis. The team describes it as a “gravity-fed pressure system for inflation”. It’s as if Rube Goldberg built a fluffing device.]
The team found that many of these goosenecks were carrying developing embryos, despite sitting well outside the penis range of any immediate neighbour. Scientists first found isolated but fertilised barnacles back in 1960, but they always assumed that these individuals had fertilised themselves. Spermcasting runs so against the textbook wisdom about barnacles that no one considered it as an explanation.
For the gooseneck barnacle, that assumption is especially bizarre since no one has ever seen these animals fertilise each other. Equally, scientists have failed to see solo goosenecks fertilise themselves in a lab. “DNA markers were an obvious way to test these alternative hypotheses,” says Palmer.
Baranzandeh collected embryos from 37 barnacles and checked their DNA, she found that almost all of them carried genes from a second parent. They couldn’t possibly have arisen through self-fertilisation. Nor could these genes have come from a neighbouring barnacle that then died, since barnacles take longer to decay than eggs take to hatch. Spermcasting is the only remaining alternative.
We don’t know how it happens, how often it happens, or whether other barnacles can do the same thing (although the team is checking). We do know that the goosenecks can capture sperm from the water even if there’s a penis within reach, since a quarter of the individuals with an adjacent partner were carrying embryos that had been fertilised by a distant one.
And since Barazandeh saw goosenecks leaking sperm from their shells at low tide, it’s possible that these ejaculates wash away to be captured by barnacles downshore. As she writes, “Quite contrary to all prior expectations about mating in barnacles, P. polymerus appear able to obtain sperm from the water in the field and do so even when an adjacent partner is available,”
Reference: Barazandeh, Davis, Neufeld, Coltman & Palmer. 2013. Something Darwin did not know about barnacles: spermcast mating in a common stalked species. Biology Letters.
More on penises and sperm:
- To find out why this beetle has a spiky penis, scientists shaved it with lasers
- Ballistic penises and corkscrew vaginas – the sexual battles of ducks
- The sexual battles of flatworms: barbed sperm, mating rings, traumatic insemination, and going down on yourself
- Sperm war – the sperm of ants and bees do battle inside the queens
- Traumatic insemination – male spider pierces female’s underside with needle-sharp penis
- Indiscriminate squid just implanting everyone with sperm
- Hermaphrodite insects fertilise daughters with parasitic sperm
Go Further
Animals
- These 'trash fish' are among Earth's most primitive animalsThese 'trash fish' are among Earth's most primitive animals
- These photos are works of art—and the artists are bugsThese photos are works of art—and the artists are bugs
- The epic migration of a 6-foot long, 200-pound catfishThe epic migration of a 6-foot long, 200-pound catfish
- Frans de Waal, biologist who studied animal emotion, dies at 75Frans de Waal, biologist who studied animal emotion, dies at 75
Environment
- Are synthetic diamonds really better for the planet? The answer isn't clear-cut.Are synthetic diamonds really better for the planet? The answer isn't clear-cut.
- This year's cherry blossom peak bloom was a warning signThis year's cherry blossom peak bloom was a warning sign
- The U.S. just announced an asbestos ban. What took so long?The U.S. just announced an asbestos ban. What took so long?
- The most dangerous job? Inside the world of underwater weldersThe most dangerous job? Inside the world of underwater welders
- The harrowing flight that wild whooping cranes make to surviveThe harrowing flight that wild whooping cranes make to survive
History & Culture
- Why Swedish children celebrate Easter by dressing up as witchesWhy Swedish children celebrate Easter by dressing up as witches
- Meet the powerful yokai that inspired the demon king in ‘Demon Slayer’Meet the powerful yokai that inspired the demon king in ‘Demon Slayer’
- A surprising must-wear for European monarchs? Weasels.A surprising must-wear for European monarchs? Weasels.
- Meet the woman who made Polaroid into a cultural iconMeet the woman who made Polaroid into a cultural icon
Science
- LED light treatments for skin are trendy—but do they actually work?LED light treatments for skin are trendy—but do they actually work?
- NASA smashed an asteroid. The debris could hit Mars.NASA smashed an asteroid. The debris could hit Mars.
- Humans really can have superpowers—scientists are studying themHumans really can have superpowers—scientists are studying them
- Why engineers are concerned about aging infrastructureWhy engineers are concerned about aging infrastructure
Travel
- Why you should try beach-hopping by boat around Paxos, GreeceWhy you should try beach-hopping by boat around Paxos, Greece
- Mansion museums show visitors the gritty side of the Gilded AgeMansion museums show visitors the gritty side of the Gilded Age
- 2024 will be huge for astrotourism—here’s how to plan your trip2024 will be huge for astrotourism—here’s how to plan your trip