How do sea animals (particularly mammals) /not/ get seawater in their organs or in their blood?
I hope you can understand what I mean… for instance, if an animal swallows huge amounts of water and lives in water, what prevents that water from going INTO their organ cavities? Are they as sealed up against water as our organs are when we dive underwater (unless we drown..)
Well marine mammals don’t drink water, they get water from their food and from metabolizing fat. Baleen whales don’t swallow water, they just suck it all into their mouth, and then filter out the water through their baleen (hair-teeth things) and swallow their food. Like spitting water through your teeth.
But in their body cavity? Why wouldn’t they be sealed up? Whales don’t have holes in them, mammals are just as covered in skin as we are
As for animals like fish and crustaceans or mollusks, their cells are actually at a higher salinity than our cells (they have more salt in them). That’s why you can’t put a saltwater fish in freshwater, because solvent moves towards the media with more solute. That means that fresh water would rush into their salty cells and destroy them.
So basically, it’s the same reason we’re fine with living in air. Our cells are adapted for it.
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Crikey a Wild Ski Bum December 10th, 2009, 2:11 am
Well marine mammals don’t drink water, they get water from their food and from metabolizing fat. Baleen whales don’t swallow water, they just suck it all into their mouth, and then filter out the water through their baleen (hair-teeth things) and swallow their food. Like spitting water through your teeth.
But in their body cavity? Why wouldn’t they be sealed up? Whales don’t have holes in them, mammals are just as covered in skin as we are
As for animals like fish and crustaceans or mollusks, their cells are actually at a higher salinity than our cells (they have more salt in them). That’s why you can’t put a saltwater fish in freshwater, because solvent moves towards the media with more solute. That means that fresh water would rush into their salty cells and destroy them.
So basically, it’s the same reason we’re fine with living in air. Our cells are adapted for it.
References :
zoology student