Note: Information is dated. Do not rely on it.

Barnacle. The name of a family of marine crustaceous animals always found attached to some object such as a ship's bottom, piles, or floating timbers. They have a partially segmented body surrounded by a mantle which is generally calcified and forms more or less of a shell. They have no heart, gills, or other organs of respiration. They feed on small marine animals, brought within their reach by the water and secured bv their tentacula. Some of the larger species are edible. According to an old fable, these animals produced barnacle geese.

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