What a life… tiny little barnacle larvae floating around the ocean finding their way onto the body of the largest species of sea turtle in a vast, open ocean! Going with the current is what the larvae of Platylepas coriacea do once they’re stuck onto the leatherback (Dermochelys coriaca).
I found eight of these barnacles earlier this month at Levera beach, Grenada and John Zardus at the Citadel in South Carolina, USA was kind enough to identify the exact species.Some of the barnacles decided to spawn in the sampling bottle of seawater that I placed them overnight to their trip to a nice little comfy aquarium in the lab.
How do these tiny larvae of these leatherback-specific barnacles find their host in such a vast open ocean? What cues do they use to find their host surface and make their choice to settle? How is the leatherback’s conservations status going to affect the fate of these little creatures?
Platylepas coriacea under a dissecting microscope (adult, alive)
Platylepas coriacea early nauplii larvae at about 106 hours post-spawning (x100 magnification)
