miuate have recently been found by workers from the National Museum of Wales, the British Museum (Natural

History) and University College, Swansea. Perhaps the most striking of these fossils was collected in May 1979 by Bob Owens of the National Museum of Wales in an abandoned quarry at Llwyn-crwn near Whitland. It has a boot-shaped head and can loosely be called Cothumcystis, although it deserves a new genus. The photograph (Fig. 4) shows a latex cast of a natural mould and represents the dorsal surface of the animal. A series of nine gill slits is clearly visible in the left part of the head. The animal shown in Fig. 4 is now being reconstructed in the British Museum (Natural History) with a view to publication as a new species and genus. These Welsh finds show that many other calcichordates are lying in the rocks, waiting to be discovered. They must often have been seen in the

past by fossil collectors but not recognized and therefore thrown away. Once geologists become sensitive to them, and realize their high zoological significance, they will appear in large numbers. Readers of Geology Today should keep their eyes open for them!

Suggestions for further reading

Jefferies, R.P.S. 1986. The Ancestry of the Vertebrates. British Museum (Natural History). Jefferies, R.P.S., Lewis, M. & Donovan, S.K.1987. Protocystites menevensis - a stem-group chordate (Cornuta) from the Middle Cambrian of South Wales. Palaeontology, v. 30, pp. 429-484.

R. P. S. JEFFERIES Fossil Echinoderm Section

British Museum (Natural History)

Fossils explained 10: Barnacles

M o s t arthropods with which we are familiar, either fossil or extant (such as insects, trilobites and osuacods), are free-living organisms with a welldeveloped head that bears prominent sensory organs such as compound eyes. The body is obviously segmented, bilaterally symmetrical and enclosed in a chitinous exoskeleton. Paired appendages are adapted for a variety of functions, particularly locomotion. The barnacles, or cirripeds, are an exceptional group of arthropods in being sessile (i.e. attached) organisms. Attachment is in the head region and occurs at the time of settlement of the free-living larva. Most of the fossil cirripeds are divided into two distinct groups, the goose barnacles and the acorn barnacles. In goose barnacles, the body is attached to the substrate by a flexible, stalk-like peduncle, a feature lacking in acorn barnacles, which are directly cemented. The name cirriped, derived from the Latin, means curl foot, referring to the curved appendages, or cirri, of the thorax, which are mainly adapted for the capture of food. In both groups of barnacles, the principal organs of the body are enclosed within a calcareous shell, called the capitulum, composed of a number of plates that show prominent growth lines and are usually a distinctive triangular, tetragonal or polygonal outline. The shell is dominantly composed of calcite. Communication with the external environment is afforded by an aperture which can be sealed by a moveable operculum. The function of the shell is primarily protective, but its existence places certain constraints on the growth of barnacles. Arthropods grow episodically, not continuously. Increase of body size involves the moulting of the chitinous exoskeleton (a process called ecdysis). The soft parts are then swollen by [he absorption of water and a new exoskeleton is secreted. During the growth of barnacles, the calcified portions of the exoskeleton are retained, but the chitinous sections undergo frequent moults to keep pace with shell growth. It is the hard, calcite shell of cirripeds that is preserved in the fossil record. Because the shell comprises numerous separate plates, preservation is either as rare complete specimens, with or without the moveable operculum, or, more commonly, as dissociated plates. Although obviously smaller and thus less obvious than complete shells, disarticulated plates are often very plentiful locally. Most barnacles are less than 10 mm in height, so the separate plates are difficult to see and are best picked from a sediment sample under the binocular microscope. However, some species, such as the acorn barnacle Balanus (Megabalanus) tintinnabulum (Pliocene to Holocene), are large, reaching over 50 mm in height and at least 45 mm in maximum diameter (Figs 1 and 2). The disarticulated plates of such species are thus easily detected with the naked eye. Acorn barnacles are more commonly preserved as fossils than goose barnacles, owing to their differing body structures. In goose barnacles the fleshy peduncle is attached and supports the capitulum. Although the peduncle can be armoured by beads of calcite or chitin, it will still rot away soon after death, leaving the capitulum free and liable to mechanical
Chitinous: comprising chitin, a resistant organic compound with the same basic structure as cellulose but containing nitrogen.

Peduncle: a narrow part by which the larger or whole part of the organism is attached.
Operculurn: a lid, or cover. Fig. 1. Balunus sp. from the Plio-Pleistocene Red Crag of

East Anglia. A small cluster of individual acorn barnacles. The large specimen in the centre shows obvious growth lines. The individual arrowed retains the operculum. Scale bar represents 1 mm.

GEOLOGY TODAY November-December 19881213

barnacle settlement that they usually occur in clusters, attracted as larvae by the presence of a particular protein in attached individuals of their own species. Where can the collector find fossil barnacles? Their geological range is Silurian to Holocene. Rarely, barnacles are present as the dominant fossil group, as in the Balanus Bed in Tobago, West Indies, but they are more often found as rare encrusters or as dissociated plates. Some of the best collecting in the UK is i the Crag deposits of East Anglia. Further localn ities are listed in the publications by Morris and Withers, listed below, while the standard reference on fossil barnacles is still the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology.

Suggestions for further reading

Morris, S.F. 1987. Crustaceans. In: Fossils of the Cholk (ed. A.B. Smith). Palaeontological Association, Field Guides to Fossils no. 2, pp. 192-200. Newman, W.A., Zullo, V.A. & Withers, T.H. 1969. Cirripedia. In: Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part R , Arthropoda 4(1) (eds R.C. Moore & C. Teichert). Geological Society of America and breakage or abrasion. Additionally, the fleshy University of Kansas Press, New York & structure of the capitulum, called the mantle, may be Lawrence, pp. R206-R295. unarmoured or embedded only by calcite plates that Withers, T.H. 1928. Catalogue of fossil Cimpedia in do not overlap. In contrast, acorn barnacles attach by the Deparnnent of Geology. Vol. I . Triassic and the disc-like basis, which is often calcified as a subJurassic. British Museum (Natural History), circular plate. Even if the capitulum is lost, a calcified xii+l55 pp. basis (or its scar) is often preserved on the substrate. Withers, T.H. 1935. Catalogue of fossil Cimpedia in Additionally, the plates of the capitulum in acorn the Department of Geology. Vol. I I . Cretaceous. barnacles invariably overlap to form a rigid structure. British Museum (Natural History), xv+535 pp. This is more resistant to abrasion than the capitulum Withers, T.H. 1953. Catalogue of fossil Cimpedia in in most goose barnacles. the Department of Geology. Vol. I I I . Tertiary. Barnacles require a suitable hard substrate for British Museum (Natural History), xv+396 pp. attachment. This can take a broad range of morphologies. For example, in the Plio-Pleistocene Red Crag STEPHEN K. DONOVAN of East Anglia, acorn barnacles are found encrusting Department of Geology such diverse substrates as bone, gastropod and bivalve University of the West Indies shells, pebbles and cobbles, pyritized wood, and other Jamaica barnacles, to name but a few. It is a feature of

Fig. 2. Balonur sp. from the Plio-Pleistocene Red Crag of East Anglia. Internal surface of a solitary, disarticulated but well-preserved plate, showing obvious growth lines. Scale bar represents 1 mm.

rr

Book reviews
Alfred Wegener: The Father of Continental Drift by M. Schwarzbach. Science Tech Publishers (USA, Canada and Mexico) ISBN 0 910239 03 07 (hardback); Springer-Verlag (elsewhere) ISBN 3 540 17310 2 (hardback) DM 118.00. 1987. 241 pp. Four other writers have contributed to this book by Schwarzbach. Anthony Hallam wrote an introduction, and I. B. Cohen has a chapter on the revolution in the Earth sciences. These two are duly credited on the title page. For some strange reason the other two are not. Johannes Georgi, who knew Wegener and accompanied him on Arctic expeditions, has a chapter on his memories of the man. Carla Love translated the book from the German, and if the English edition has any readability it is her skill that provided it. Yet her name is hidden away in the small print of the publication details. Both Cohens and Georgis contributions are, in fact, reprinted from other publications. This information is also hidden away - in the notes at the back of the book. The multiplicity of writers has entailed some repetition of information, but that is not the only reason why this is not a book that can be recommended. It fails as biography. The main biographical chapter reads like a padded list of the main events in Wegeners life, his academic appointments and achievements. T o tell the reader that the man had a sense of humor without illustrating the fact is to sell h m short measure. Wegener himself comes through i occasionally where h i s own writings are quoted, and also in Georgis chapter. It fails in its presentation of science. Wegener was primarily a meteorologist, but the interested reader

214lGEOLOGY T O D A Y November-December 1988