Goose barnacle migrate, it was thought that barnacle geese, "Branta leucopsis", developed from this crustacean, since they were never seen to nest in temperate Europe, hence the English names "goose barnacle", "barnacle goose" and the scientific name "Lepas anserifera" (, "goose"). The confusion was prompted by the similarities in colour and shape. Because they were often found on driftwood, it was assumed that the barnacles were attached to branches before they fell in the water. The archdeacon of Brecon, Gerald of Wales, made this claim in his "Topographia Hiberniae". Since barnacle geese were thought to be "neither flesh, nor born of flesh",
Barnacle a delicacy in Spain and Portugal. The resemblance of this barnacle's fleshy stalk to a goose's neck gave rise in ancient times to the notion that geese, or at least certain seagoing species of wild geese, literally grew from the barnacle. Indeed, the word "barnacle" originally referred to a species of goose, the barnacle goose "Branta leucopsis", whose eggs and young were rarely seen by humans because it breeds in the remote Arctic. Additionally, the picoroco barnacle is used in Chilean cuisine and is one of the ingredients in "curanto". Barnacle A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the