Wikimedia, Monika KorzeniecPotty mouth turtles
The Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinens) lives in salty swamps and marshes, regularly lifting its head above the surface to breathe. So biologists from the National University of Singapore were puzzled when they saw the turtles plunging their heads into puddles and swishing water around their mouths. On closer inspection, the reason became clear: they do so to excrete urea—a major component of urine—through their mouths. The findings bring a whole new meaning to the phrase “potty mouth.”
For a study published this month (November 1) in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the researchers brought some turtles—commonly available at food markets in China and southeast Asia—into the lab. First they measured urea coming from the rear end, and then levels of the compound found in ...
