摘要
At least zoologists know that barnacles are arthropods rather than mollusks.However,this knowledge is surprisingly new,for it was as recent as 1830 before J.Vaughan Thompson showed,through a careful study of barnacle larvae,that they were crustaceans.In the 1850s,Charles Darwin unraveled much of the taxonomy of barnacles,and,significantly,his observations and classification of them follow the structure that was to be published later as his evolutionary theory.Irrespective of these works,knowledge of the systematic placement of barnacles remains surprisingly poor in the wider population today,with most non-biologists viewing barnacles as shallow-water fouling organisms related to oysters and limpets.The present paper reviews the way humans have perceived barnacles for at least a millennium;it evaluates why they were thought to have grown from trees and to have been part of the life cycle of birds;it concludes by contemplating the manner in which we perceive our environment and by doing so try to make sense of our world.
基金
I thank Professor William(Bill)A.Newman,Scripps Institute of Oceanography,California,my constant friend in the Cirripedia,who has mentored,debated and researched with me on barnacles for more than 3 decades.It was in the 1990s that Bill directed me to the extraordinary work of the English polymath Edward Heron-Allen,whose observations feature significantly in this paper.Professor Rob Watts and Father Jo Dirks,RMIT University,Melbourne,Associate Professor James McGrath,Butler University,Indianapolis provided helpful comments at an early stage of the manuscript and 3 anonymous referees provided further insight,Ms Urara“Fujitsubo”Kuratani,of Kobe,Japan kindly provided images of her wonderful barnacle art,demonstrating that cirripedophilia is alive and thriving in the 21st century.Ms Sandra Powlette,British Library,London is thanked for kindly arranging permission,without fee,to use the image in Fig.1(taken from the 13th century manuscript Bestiary).I also thank the Bureau of International Cooperation,Chinese Academy of Sciences that supported my attendance at the Seventh International Crustacean Congress in Qingdao,China,to give an oral presentation of this paper.
