Everyone knows the feeling of desperately needing to go to the loo. Bouncing from one foot to the other, you look around in search of an appropriate facility, praying all the while that it won’t be occupied.
When the Chinese soft-shelled turtle needs to urinate, its approach is a little different. It goes in search of a puddle, and dunks its head under the surface.
That’s because the Chinese soft-shelled turtle is unique in the animal kingdom: it urinates through its mouth.
Proteins in the turtle’s mouth lining actively transport urea (pee) out of its bloodstream. Then when they rinse their mouths out with water and spit it out, the urea goes with the water and out of the body. Amazing!
Tags: Zoology
October 19, 2012 at 6:31 am |
Umm… I didn’t exactly want to “like” that, but it is kind of cool… kind of.