Charles Darwin's Love Of Barnacles Led To Some Incredible Facts We Take For Granted

by N/A, 9 years ago | 1 min read

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You may know how much Charles Darwin influenced the scientific community when he spearheaded the study of natural selection, you may not know just how into the study of barnacles this man was.

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The love of barnacles began when Darwin was on his five-year journey on the HMS Beagle.

It was here that Darwin stumbled upon one very unique little conch shell. The shell had a bunch of holes in it and Darwin decided he needed to investigate it. He found a little barnacle somewhere on the shell, and actually nicknamed the barnacle "Mr. Anthrobalanus."

This may seem a little strange (and even within context...the nicknaming part is), but at this time, almost nothing was known about barnacles. This little guy was a mystery to Darwin.

He set about trying to learn all he could about barnacles, and make a name for himself in moving forward the actual study of barnacles. One thing he found was that there was very little classification within barnacle types, and he sought to change that.

It was pretty excruciating work, but he learned a lot about the little creatures!

He learned that in some types of barnacles, there are males and females, which was contrary to the prevailing philosophy that all were hermaphroditic. A lot of his barnacle research really put him on the map as a naturalist! And thank goodness for that.