Metamorphosis in a Silurian barnacle.

Journal article

Exceptionally preserved fossils from the Wenlock Series (Silurian) of Herefordshire, UK, provide unique evidence of metamorphosis from free-swimming cyprid larva to attached juvenile in a Palaeozoic barnacle. The larva had large brush-like anterior limbs. The juvenile shows the head transformed into a stalk and the development of the primordial condition of five mineralized plates within the carapace. The discovery of a cyprid larva indicates that crown group cirripedes had evolved by the Silurian.

Authors: Briggs, D; Sutton, MD; Siveter, D; Siveter, D

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society
• Volume: 272
• Issue: 1579
• Pages: 2365-2369
• Publication date: 2005-11-01
• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3224
• EISSN: 1471-2954
• ISSN: 0962-8452
• Language: English
• Keywords: Animals; Thoracica; Great Britain; Fossils; Larva; Metamorphosis, Biological