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Description: | Specimen of a fossil crustacean (barnacle), Balanus concavus, collected from the Coralline Crag or Red Crag of Tertiary (or Quaternary), Pliocene (or Pleistocene) age from East Anglia (SE England). Collected by William K. Loftus.
Barnacles are specialised crustaceans that have a carapace (skeleton) composed of six hard plates. The plates are fused together to form a protective chamber for the barnacles soft body. Balanus lives in high-energy intertidal zones (the area between high and low tide) cemented to rocky seabeds and shells where it feeds on food particles that it filters out of the water. The coastal habitat of living barnacles has led to fossil ones being used to identify coastlines in the geological past.
The specimen was found in East Anglia.
It is from the Tertiary period (65 - 1.8 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Classification: Animalia Invertebrata Crustacea Arthropoda William K. Loftus | Temporal: | Tertiary period (65 - 1.8 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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