Re: Tears and 'salt excre

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In article <bbur.88.0009B989@wpo.nerc.ac.uk> bbur@wpo.nerc.ac.uk (Bill Burnett) writes:

[ 8< ]

>I believe most of the fluid intake of marine animals (at least the carnivores)
>comes from the tissue fluids of their prey, which may be slightly
>hypotonic to sea water (depending on prey item) so reduces salt intake and
>associated problems to some extent.

Actually, I suspect that most of the fluid intake would come from
incidental ingestion of seawater while eating prey items. When a
baleen whale swallows a mouthfull of krill, it could not help but
injest considerable seawater with it. Animals that eat "chunkier"
food might have better space-filling in their mouths (less room for
seawater in that mouthful), but still (and this is just my "gut
feeling" make of it what you will) would probably swallow considerable
seawater along with it.

David L. Burkhead
r3dlb1@dax.cc.uakron.edu
d.l.burk@ix.netcom.com

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