Editing Barnacle (section)

=== Fossil record ===

The oldest definitive fossil barnacle is ''[[Praelepas]]'' from the mid-[[Carboniferous]], around 330-320 million years ago.<ref name="Chan Dreyer Gale 2021"/> Older claimed barnacles such as ''[[Priscansermarinus]]'' from the [[Middle Cambrian]], some {{Ma|510|500}},<ref name=Foster1987>{{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=B. A. |last2=Buckeridge |first2=J. S. |year=1987 |title=Barnacle palaeontology |pages=41–63}} In [[#refSouthward|A. J. Southward (ed.), 1987]].</ref> do not show clear barnacle morphological traits, though ''[[Rhamphoverritor]]'' from the [[Silurian]] [[Coalbrookdale Formation]] of England may represent a [[Crown group|stem-group]] barnacle. Barnacles first [[Evolutionary radiation|radiated]] and became diverse during the Late [[Cretaceous]]. Barnacles underwent a second, much larger radiation beginning during the [[Neogene]] and still continuing.<ref name="Chan Dreyer Gale 2021"/>

<gallery class=center mode=nolines widths=275px heights=150px>
File:Megabalanus on breccia (cropped).JPG|[[Miocene]] ([[Messinian]]) ''[[Megabalanus]]'', smothered by sand and fossilised
File:Chesaconcavus top view.jpg|''Chesaconcavus'', a Miocene barnacle from Maryland
File:Chesaconcavus base detail.jpg|Underside of large ''Chesaconcavus'' showing internal plates in bioimmured smaller barnacles
</gallery>