Brilliant Barnacles - Darwin Inspired Learning

This module uses barnacles as the basis for students to learn the principles of classification, taxonomy and phylogeny.

Darwin took eight years to study every known fossil and living barnacle and his work forms the basis upon which the serious study of barnacle classification and evolution has been based.

In this module students will study barnacle morphology, life histories and life styles as Darwin did. Recent work using genetic and molecular evidence and scanning electron microscopy shows how some of the key difficulties in drawing the phylogenetic tree of barnacles have been resolved very recently by systematists and how some new questions have been raised.