Abstract
We report on two clustering chelonibiid shells from Rupelian deposits of southwestern Germany. One of these specimens displays a tripartite rostral complex and disparietal radii that indicate the Oligocene species Protochelonibia melleni, which was known so far from isolated compartments only. A literature review reveals two additional, overlooked records of the rarely reported genus Protochelonibia, coming, respectively, from the Burdigalian of France and the Langhian of Austria. Both these historical finds likely represent the Miocene species Protochelonibia submersa. All together, these occurrences support the notion that the protochelonibiines had acquired a broad distribution as early as in Rupelian times, when P. melleni occurred along the proto-Gulf of Mexico and in the Western Paratethys. Both P. melleni and P. submersa grew in form of peltate shells that evoke a superficial adhesion to some kind of quickly moving hosts. The outer wall of the abraded German colony of P. melleni is comprised of pillar-like blocks of shelly material. In other coronuloids, similar yet more prominent septa abut outward to form T-shaped flanges and intervening longitudinal canals that facilitate the grasping of various kinds of penetrable substrates. The diminutive external longitudinal parietal septa of P. melleni are more likely to represent an early stage in the evolution of the coronuloid shell architecture than vestigial structures. New additions to the pre-Pliocene fossil record of Coronuloidea and a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the turtle and whale barnacles will hopefully clarify this and other crucial aspects of the origin and early evolution of these remarkable forms.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Buckeridge, J.S., and W.A. Newman. 2006. A revision of the Iblidae and stalked barnacles (Cirripedia: Thoracica), including new ordinal, familial and generic taxa and 2 new species from New Zealand and Tasmanian waters. Zootaxa 2349: 39–54. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1136.1.1.
Burmeister, H.I. 1834. Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Rankenfüsser (Cirripedia). Berlin: G. Reimer.
Cahuzac, B., and A. Poignant. 2005. Sur les foraminifères benthiques De la base du Burdigalien dans les «Sables à Mactres» de Martillac (Gironde, SO France). Annales de Paléontologie 91: 5–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annpal.2004.11.003.
Cahuzac, B., P. Carbonel, A. Cluzaud, J.-P. Colin, B. Faury, Y. Gilly, J.-F. Lesport, L. Londeix, N. Martin, and P. Rocher. 1996. La Réserve Naturelle Géologique de Saucats-La Brède (Gironde). Sud-Ouest Nature 92: 1–64.
Carriol, R.P. 2008. New genus and new species of Cirripedia (Chthamalidae, Tetraclitidae, Archaeobalanidae and Balanidae) from the Middle Miocene of the faluns of Touraine (France). Zootaxa 1675: 31–48. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1675.1.2.
Chan, B.K.K., N. Dreyer, A.S. Gale, H. Glenner, C. Ewers-Saucedo, M. Pérez-Losada, G.A. Kolbasov, K.A. Crandall, and J.T. Høeg. 2021, in press. The evolutionary diversity of barnacles, with an updated classification of fossil and living forms. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa160.
Chan, B.K.K., R.E. Prabowo, and K.S. Lee 2009. Crustacean fauna of Taiwan: Barnacles, Volume 1, Cirripedia: Thoracica excluding the Pyrgomatidae and Acastinae. Keelung: National Taiwan Ocean University.
Cheang, C.C., L.M. Tsang, K.H. Chu, I.J. Cheng, and B.K.K. Chan. 2013. Host-specific phenotypic plasticity of the turtle barnacle Chelonibia testudinaria: A widespread generalist rather than a specialist. PLoS ONE 8: e57592. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057592.
Collareta, A. 2016. Fossil turtle and whale barnacles (Crustacea: Cirripedia: Coronuloidea) kept at the Natural History Museum of Pisa University: An annotated catalogue. Atti della Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali, Memorie (A:) 123: 41–45. https://doi.org/10.2424/ASTSN.M.2016.18.
Collareta, A. 2020. Discovery of complemental males in a Pliocene accumulation of Chelonibia testudinaria (Linnaeus, 1758), with some notes on the evolution of androdioecy in turtle barnacles. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 297: 193–203. https://doi.org/10.1127/njgpa/2020/0920.
Collareta, A., and Bianucci, G. 2021. The occurrence of the coronuloid barnacle Chelonibia Leach, 1817 as an encruster on mammalian bone in the central Mediterranean Sea. Acta Adriatica 62: 83–92.
Collareta, A., M. Bosselaers, and G. Bianucci. 2016a. Jumping from turtles to whales: a Pliocene fossil record depicts an ancient dispersal of Chelonibia on mysticetes. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 122: 35–44. https://doi.org/10.13130/2039-4942/7229.
Collareta, A., S. Margiotta, A. Varola, R. Catanzariti, M. Bosselaers, G. Bianucci. 2016b. A new whale barnacle from the early Pleistocene of Italy suggests an ancient right whale breeding ground in the Mediterranean. Comptes Rendus Palevol 15: 473–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2015.10.006.
Collareta, A., and W.A. Newman. 2020. Protochelonibia melleni (Zullo, 1982) comb. nov., an archaic barnacle from the lower Oligocene of Mississippi (USA), and its impact on the stratigraphic and geographic distribution of the early coronuloids of Western Tethys. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 59: 179–181.
Collareta, A., W.A. Newman, G. Bosio, and G. Coletti. 2021, in press. A new chelonibiid from the Miocene of Zanzibar (Eastern Africa) sheds light on the evolution of shell architecture in turtle and whale barnacles (Cirripedia: Coronuloidea). Integrative Zoology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12554.
Collareta, A., A. Reitano, A. Rosso, R. Sanfilippo, M. Bosselaers, G. Bianucci, and G. Insacco. 2019. The oldest platylepadid turtle barnacle (Cirripedia, Coronuloidea): A new species of Platylepas from the Lower Pleistocene of Italy. European Journal of Taxonomy 516: 1–17. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2019.516.
Cooper, C.L. 1935. Ammonium chloride sublimate apparatus. Journal of Paleontology 9: 357–359.
Darwin, C. 1854. A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Balanidae, The Verrucidae, etc. London: Ray Society.
Davis, C.W. 1972. Studies on the barnacles epizoic on marine vertebrates (Unpublished MA thesis). San Francisco: California State University. https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/vh53x140n?locale=es. Accessed 30 Apr 2021.
De Alessandri, G. 1895. Contribuzione allo studio dei cirripedi fossili d’Italia. Bollettino della Società Geologica Italiana 14: 234–314.
De Alessandri, G. 1906. Studi monografici sui cirripedi fossili d’Italia. Palaeontographica Italica 12: 205–324.
Dominici, S., M. Bartalini, M. Benvenuti, and B. Balestra. 2011. Large kings with small crowns: a Mediterranean Pleistocene whale barnacle. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 50: 95–101. https://doi.org/10.4435/BSPI.2011.10.
Fabricius, O. 1798. Tillaeg-til Conchylie-Slaegterne Lepas, Pholas, Mya, Solen. Skrivter Naturhistorie Selskabet Kjobenhavn 4: 34–51.
Feldman, R.M. 1989. Whitening fossils for photographic purposes. The Paleontological Society Special Publication 4: 342–346.
Gale, A.S., and A.M. Sørensen. 2015. Origin of the balanomorph barnacles (Crustacea, Cirripedia, Thoracica): New evidence from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Sweden. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 13: 791–824. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2014.954824.
Gourinard, Y., J. Magné, M. Ringeade, and M.J. Fondecave-Wallez. 1999. Sr-ages and grade-datings in the area of the Lower Miocene near Bordeaux (Aquitaine Basin, France). Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (IIA: Earth and Planetary Science) 329: 61–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1251-8050(99)80228-6
Gregorova, R., O. Schultz, M. Harzhauser, A. Kroh, and S. Ćorić. 2009. A giant Early Miocene sunfish from the North Alpine Foreland Basin (Austria) and its implication for molid phylogeny. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29: 359–371. https://doi.org/10.1671/039.029.0201.
Grimm, K.I., M.C. Grimm, A. Köthe, and T. Schindler. 2002. Der “Rupelton” (Rupelium, Oligozän) der Tongrube Bott-Eder bei Rauenberg (Oberrheingraben, Deutschland). Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 237: 229–253.
Grunert, P., M. Harzhauser, F. Rögl, R. Sachsenhofer, R. Gratzer, A. Soliman, and W.E. Piller. 2010. Oceanographic conditions trigger the formation of an Early Miocene (Aquitanian) Konservat-Lagerstätte in the Central Paratethys Sea. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 292: 425–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.04.001.
Gruvel, A. 1903. Révision des Cirrhipédes appartenant à la collection du Muséum d’Histoire naturelle. Operculés. I. Nouvelles Archives du Museum de Histoire Naturelle (Série 4) 5: 95–170.
Harzhauser, M., W.A. Newman, and P. Grunert. 2011. A new Early Miocene barnacle lineage and the roots of sea-turtle fouling Chelonibiidae (Cirripedia, Balanomorpha). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 9: 473–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2010.528053.
Harzhauser, M., M. Kranner, O. Mandic, P. Strauss, W. Siedl, W.E. Piller. 2020. Miocene lithostratigraphy of the northern and central Vienna Basin (Austria). Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences 113: 169–200. https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2020.0011
Hayashi, R. 2013. A checklist of turtle and whale barnacles (Cirripedia: Thoracica: Coronuloidea). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 93: 143–182. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315412000847.
Kočí, T., M.K. Veselská, W.A. Newman, J.S. Buckeridge, and J. Sklenář. 2017. Archaeochionelasmus nekvasilovae gen. et sp. nov. (Cirripedia, Balanomorpha, Chionelasmatoidea) from the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin (Czech Republic): the first bona fide Cretaceous neobalanoform. Zootaxa 4294: 181–196. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4294.2.3.
Lamarck, J.B. de. 1818. Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres, vol. 5. Paris: Deterville.
Leach, W.E. 1817. Distribution systématique de la classe des Cirripèdes. Journal de Physique de Chimie et d'Histoire Naturelle 85: 67–69.
Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae sive Regna Tria Naturae, secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, editio decima, reformata. Stockholm: Laurentius Salvius.
Maxwell, E.E., S. Alexander, G. Bechly, K. Eck, E. Frey, K. Grimm, J. Kovar-Eder, G. Mayr, N. Micklich, M. Rasser, A. Roth-Nebelsick, R.B. Salvador, P.R. Schoch, G. Schweigert, W. Stinnesbeck, K. Wolf-Schwenninger, and R. Ziegler. 2016. The Rauenberg fossil Lagerstätte (Baden-Württemberg, Germany): A window into early Oligocene marine and coastal ecosystems of Central Europe. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 463: 238–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.10.002.
Monroe, R. 1981. Studies in the Coronulidae (Cirripedia) shell morphology, growth, and function, and their bearing on subfamily classification. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 20: 237–251.
Monroe, R., and C.J. Limpus. 1979. Barnacles on turtles in Queensland waters with descriptions of three new species. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 19: 197–223.
Newman, W.A. 1996. Cirripedia; Suborders Thoracica and Acrothoracica. In Traité de Zoologie, Tome VII, Crustacés, Fascicule 2, ed. J. Forest, 453–540. Paris: Masson.
Pilsbry, H.A. 1916. The sessile barnacles (Cirripedia) contained in the collections of the U.S. National Museum; including a monograph of the American species. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 93: 1–366.
Prabowo, R.E., and T. Yamaguchi. 2005. A new mangrove barnacle of the genus Fistulobalanus (Cirripedia: Amphibalaninae) from Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 85: 929–936. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315405011902.
Ranzani, C. 1817. Osservazioni Sui Balanidi. Opuscoli Scientifici 2: 63–69.
Ross, A. 1963. Chelonibia in the Neogene of Florida. Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Science 26: 221–233.
Ross, A., and W.A. Newman. 1967. Eocene Balanidae of Florida, including a new genus and species with a unique plan of “turtle-barnacle” organization. American Museum Novitates 2288: 1–21.
Ross, A., and W.A. Newman. 1996. Unique experiment in four-platedness by a Miocene barnacle (Cirripedia: Balanidae) that Darwin considered improbable. Journal of Crustacean Biology 16: 663–668. https://doi.org/10.1163/193724096X00748.
Scotese, C.R. 2014a. Atlas of Neogene paleogeographic maps (Mollweide projection), Maps 1–7, Vol. 1, The Cenozoic. In PALEOMAP Atlas for ArcGIS, PALEOMAP Project, Scotese C.R. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267639954_Scotese_CR_2014_Atlas_of_Neogene_Paleogeographic_Maps_Mollweide_Projection_Maps_1-7_Volume_1_The_Cenozoic_PALEOMAP_Atlas_for_ArcGIS_PALEOMAP_Project_Evanston_IL. Accessed 30 Apr 2021.
Scotese, C.R. 2014b. Atlas of Paleogene paleogeographic maps (Mollweide projection), Maps 8–15, Vol. 1, The Cenozoic. In PALEOMAP Atlas for ArcGIS, PALEOMAP Project, Scotese C.R. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267569784_Atlas_of_Paleogene_Paleogeographic_Maps_Mollweide_Projection_Maps_8-15_Volume_1_The_Cenozoic_PALEOMAP_Atlas_for_ArcGIS_PALEOMAP_Project_Evanston_IL. Accessed 30 Apr 2021.
Sloan, K., J.D. Zardus, and M.L. Jones. 2014. Substratum fidelity and early growth in Chelonibia testudinaria, a turtle barnacle especially common on debilitated loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles. Bulletin of Marine Science 90: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2013.1033.
Spengler, L. 1790. Beskrivelse og Oplysing over den hidindtil lidet udarbeide Slaegt af mangeskallede Konchylier, som Linnaeus har daldet Lepas, med tilfoiede nye og ubeskrevne Aeter (Om. Conchylie-Slaegten Lepas). Skrifter af Naturhistorie Selskabet 1: 158–212.
Withers, T.H. 1929. The cirripede Chelonibia in the Miocene of Gironde, France and Vienna, Austria. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 10: 566–572. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222932908673099.
Yamaguchi, T., and W.A. Newman. 1990. A new and primitive barnacle (Cirripedia: Balanomorpha) from the North Fiji Basin abyssal hydrothermal field, and its evolutionary implications. Pacific Science 44: 135–155.
Zardus, J.D., D.T. Lake, M.G. Frick, and P.D. Rawson. 2014. Deconstructing an assemblage of “turtle” barnacles: Species assignments and fickle fidelity in Chelonibia. Marine Biology 161: 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2312-7.
Zardus, J.D. 2021, in press. A global synthesis of the correspondence between epizoic barnacles and their sea turtle hosts. Integrative Organismal Biology. https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obab002.
Zullo, V.A. 1982. A new species of the turtle barnacle Chelonibia Leach, 1817, (Cirripedia, Thoracica) from the Oligocene Mint Spring and Byram Formations of Mississippi. Mississippi Geology 2: 1–6.
Zullo, V.A. 1986. Quaternary barnacles from the Galapagos Islands. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 44: 55–66.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the late Bill Newman for his positive and supporting attitude during the too short period of our collaborations. Bill initiated the collaboration between us, which finally led to this manuscript. Bill was a great scientist and a great person! Our gratitude also goes to John S. Buckeridge, Ray T. Perreault, Giovanni Coletti and Mark Bosselaers, for several fruitful discussions on the fossil record of the coronuloid barnacles. Andrew S. Gale, an anonymous reviewer and Editor-in-chief Mike Reich are kindly acknowledged for their constructive criticisms that contributed to improve an early draft of the present paper. The research of AC is supported by a LinnéSys: Systematics Research Fund grant (funded by the Linnean Society of London and the Systematics Association).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Handling Editor: Mike Reich.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Collareta, A., Harzhauser, M. & Rasser, M.W. New and overlooked occurrences of the rarely reported protochelonibiine “turtle” barnacles from the Oligocene and Miocene of Europe. PalZ 96, 197–206 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-021-00576-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-021-00576-5