Balanus nubilus

Balanus nubilus, commonly called the giant acorn barnacle, is the world's largest barnacle, reaching a diameter of 15 cm (6 in) and a height of up to 30 cm (12 in), and containing the largest known muscle fibres.

Balanus nubilus

(c) Matt Muir, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
giant acorn barnaclePBDB
Sits inside
BalanusPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Balanidae
Life habit
epifaunal, gregariousPBDB, for Balanidae
Motility
stationary, attached, epibiontPBDB, for Balanidae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Cirripedia

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 19 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 19 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 15 of 19 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.2–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 13 occurrences13.82 Mya129 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

19 occurrences of Balanus nubilus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

19 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

5 formations

Unnamed — 33.24°N, 119.47°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.55°WBear Lake — 55.50°N, 160.84°WBear Lake — 56.03°N, 160.05°WBattery — 41.76°N, 124.20°WWilson Grove — 38.34°N, 122.84°WSan Diego — 32.54°N, 117.11°W

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The named rock units Balanus nubilus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Balanus nubilus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Balanus nubilus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

436 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Balanus nubilus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

10 references

Each of the 19 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Balanus nubilus

Credit
(c) Matt Muir, some rights reserved (CC BY)
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itBalanus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Darwin 1854)