Have you ever wondered why crabs can breathe on land? I bet you haven't! Unfortunately, I'm currently having a brain fart so I can't think of a catchier intro. I mean, I understand if you guys don't want to keep reading this article. No shame on you except for the fact that you are the reason why the average person has a shorter attention span than a goldfish. No shame on you.
Before I go on my lunatic-like Sunday evening writing rampage I want to make it clear that I'm only talking about most crabs when I say "crabs". Anyways, first we need to understand how gills work. Gills are basically filtration systems that filter oxygen out of the water. When there is no water though, they can't function. Crabs have a solution to that. Similar to humans holding their breath, they hold in seawater. This is why you can see crabs hanging out on land for some time before they have to go back into the water and take another "breath" of seawater.
Why instead starfish cannot survive even a few seconds outside the water?
ReplyDeleteThat is a great question and because I'm currently bored to death I did some research. It turns out that instead of blood they pump seawater through their bodies. This seawater needs to be constantly pumped in and out of the body kind of like breathing. Otherwise, if the starfish is on land where it can't renew it's supply of water, the starfish's body will extract all the oxygen from the reused "blood" making the body unable to function due to the lack of oxygen. I hope that answers your question!
DeleteYes thank you so much! So please everyone do not ever take starfishes outside of the water if you see one in your dive! Never ever! Thank you!
DeleteBtw. I was so caught in reasoning your blog that I missed my s subway stop and ended up waaayyyyy up north
ReplyDeleteThat was “caught up in reading”.
DeleteLOL
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