The occurrence of the coronuloid barnacle Chelonibia Leach, 1817 as an encruster on mammalian bone in the central Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

           Among the turtle and whale barnacles (Coronuloidea: Chelonibiidae, Coronulidae, †Emersoniidae and Platylepadidae), the members of the chelonibiid species Chelonibia testudinaria (Linnaeus, 1758) are known as epizoic barnacles that can attach to a rather wide spectrum of substrates (primarily sea turtles, crabs and sirenians). At present, three living morphs of C. testudinaria have been recognised; of these, the less host-specific is the patula morph, which also displays a remarkably simple, unspecialised shell architecture. Here we report on several chelonibiid shells, referred to the patula morph of C. testudinaria, encrusting a cetacean scapula collected from the floor of the Adriatic Sea facing Salento (Apulia Region, southeastern Italy) and tentatively referred to Tursiops truncatus (Montagu, 1821). This is one of the few records worldwide of a coronuloid barnacle from an inanimate substrate, as well as the second as an encruster on mammalian bone. Such an unusual occurrence is then briefly discussed in the broader framework of the coronuloid commensalism and substrate habits.