Looking like a creature straight out of an alien monster movie, the bizarre organism you see is the Conchoderma auritum – rabbit-ear barnacle. This species belongs to the class Maxillopoda and the family Lepadidae. They are commonly found in the waters of Europe, Africa, and New Zealand.
Conchoderma auritum can grow quite large, reaching lengths of up to 13 cm. They have a gelatinous head, translucent pink skin, and two appendages resembling “rabbit ears” on top, each equipped with water filter valves. Their mouths feature numerous hard limbs for filtering food, while the rest of their bodies can attach to whales, the undersides of boats, buoys, or rocky outcrops in the ocean.
Rabbit-ear barnacle.
As shown in the video above, you can see them clinging to the bottom of a ship, still alive, with their limbs retracting and extending in a rather eerie manner.
Coronula barnacle.
Conchoderma auritum is also known as the Humpback Whale Goose-Neck Barnacle – goose-neck barnacle of humpback whales because they often attach themselves to this species of whale.
In fact, they cling to the shell of another barnacle species called Coronula (the white shell shown above), which typically parasitizes on whales. Sometimes, up to 50 Conchoderma auritum can attach to a single Coronula shell.
