Editing Barnacle (section)

=== Competitors ===

[[File:CornishBarnacles.JPG|thumb|Barnacles and [[limpet]]s compete for space in the intertidal zone]]

Barnacles are displaced by [[limpet]]s and [[mussel]]s, which compete for space.<ref name=Doyle1997/> They employ two strategies to overwhelm their competitors: "swamping", and fast growth. In the swamping strategy, vast numbers of barnacles settle in the same place at once, covering a large patch of substrate, allowing at least some to survive in the balance of probabilities.<ref name=Doyle1997/> Fast growth allows the suspension feeders to access higher levels of the water column than their competitors, and to be large enough to resist displacement; species employing this response, such as the aptly named ''[[Megabalanus]]'', can reach {{convert|7|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} in length.<ref name=Doyle1997/>

Competitors may include other barnacles. Balanoids gained their advantage over the chthalamoids in the Oligocene, when they evolved tubular skeletons, which provide better anchorage to the substrate, and allow them to grow faster, undercutting, crushing, and smothering chthalamoids.<ref name=Stanley2008>{{cite journal |last=Stanley |first=Steven M. |title=Predation defeats competition on the seafloor |journal=[[Paleobiology (journal)|Paleobiology]] |date=8 April 2016 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1666/07026.1 |bibcode=2008Pbio...34....1S |s2cid=83713101 }}</ref>