clipped from: www.physorg.com   
Scientists have suspected the existence of a larval footprint for some time, but this had not yet been directly demonstrated.
The footprint of the barnacle cyprid larva of approximately 30 micrometre revealed by an Atomic Force Microscope.
The fouling or growth of sea organisms, such as barnacles, on ships’ hulls causes damage costing many billions of euros annually.
In order to be able to prevent barnacle adhesion to ships, we have to know how they attach themselves to surfaces.
Barnacle larvae are about a half a millimetre in size and do not yet have a shell. They can swim, but they can also move over a surface. They do so by temporarily clamping themselves to the surface in question by exuding a sticky substance, a sort of protein-based biological cement. The mark left by this cement on a surface is known as a ‘footprint’. This footprint contains chemical substances that attract other larvae. The first footprint on a surface is therefore the first step in the colonization of the surface concerned.