Genus
Chthamalus
Chthamalus dalli. Photo: (c) Jessie Bunkley, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Chthamalus (χθαμαλός, “flat” or “on the ground”) is a genus of barnacles that is found along almost all non-boreal coasts of the northern hemisphere, as well as many regions in the southern hemisphere. These small barnacles have been studied in part because of the taxonomic confusion over a group of species that, by and large, are morphologically and ecologically quite similar. In recent years, molecular techniques have identified a number of cryptic species that have been…