“ piddle , water everywhere , nor any drop to drink . ” Was theRime of the Ancient Marineractually about sea snake ? New research suggests that the serpents , unlike other maritime reptiles like iguana and turtles , ca n’t quench their hungriness by drink sea water . The job is that bracing water alleviates hunger ( you knew this ) but the briny , salty seawater has the diametrical event . It makes you more thirsty .
Above : A yellow - bellied sea snake , photographed on a beach in Costa Rica . ( generator )
AtNational Geographic ’s Phenomenablog , Ed Yong explains :
If you wassail brine , your kidneys seek to get rid of the excess salinity by diluting it in urine , and you oust more water than you take in . The same apply to other acres animal , and those that come back to the sea have peculiar adaptation for coping with salt . Many ocean animals avoid swallowing seawater entirely , and get sweet water from the food they eat . Turtles , sea Bronx cheer and marine iguanas havespecial glandsfor getting rid of common salt .
ocean Snake have alike glandsunder their tongue . WhenHarvey Lillywhitefrom the University of Florida started studying these serpent a few decades ago , all the textbooks said that they used these secretory organ to get rid of table salt .
But Lillywhite had a severe time sample to get sea snakes – in particular , the yellow - bellied ocean snake , Pelamis platura , a coinage found in tropical waters throughout the world – to survive in aquariums make full with seawater . The snake expect fresh piss to survive , and in experiments actually turn down to drink Strategic Arms Limitation Talks water . Imagine becoming dehydrated even while surrounded by water .
So how do the snakes live ? The same way most mundane critter do . Rainwater .
When it decrease over the ocean , it does n’t mix with the brine straight off . Instead , it forms a layer that is either fresh or only mildly salty . If the conditions are right , these “ freshwater lenses ” can be both bass and unyielding . And the jaundiced - belly sea ophidian , it seems , drinks from them .
Since snake , like all reptiles , take zephyr to rest , it ’s simple enough to drink at the surface . In increase , sea snake have the alone ability to use their body as reservoirs , storing up lots of water to get them through the less rainy parts of the twelvemonth . Making them , fundamentally , sea camels .
Do n’t miss out on read the integrality of Ed Yong ’s attractively - write mail , over atNot Exactly Rocket Science .
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