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The table shows the percentage of the body composed of water for various vertebrates.
ANIMAL % OF BODY COMPOSED OF WATER
herring 67
Frog 78
Chicken 74
Kangaroo rat 65
A)Which animal would you expect to have the most concentrated urine and why?
B)The kangaroo rat and the chicken feed largely on plant products, while the herring and frog are carnivores. Explain how food sources would affect urine composition.
C)Why would the concentration of urea be higher in the kangaroo rat than than the herring?
A) To determine which animal would have the most concentrated urine, we can look at the percentage of body composed of water for each animal. The lower the percentage of body water, the more concentrated the urine is likely to be. From the given table, we can see that the herring has the lowest percentage of body water at 67%, followed closely by the kangaroo rat at 65%. Therefore, we would expect the kangaroo rat to have the most concentrated urine because of its lower percentage of body water.
B) Food sources can significantly affect urine composition. In this case, the kangaroo rat and the chicken primarily feed on plant products, while the herring and frog are carnivores. Plants contain higher amounts of water compared to animal tissues. Therefore, animals that consume plant-based diets will have higher water intake, leading to more dilute urine. On the other hand, carnivores consume animal tissues with lower water content, resulting in less water intake and, consequently, more concentrated urine.
C) The concentration of urea in an organism's urine is generally correlated with its water content. As mentioned earlier, the herring has a higher percentage of body water compared to the kangaroo rat. Since urea is a waste product of protein metabolism, it is more diluted in organisms with higher water content, such as the herring. Conversely, the kangaroo rat, with its lower body water percentage, would have a higher concentration of urea in its urine because there is less overall water available to dilute the waste products. Therefore, the concentration of urea would be higher in the kangaroo rat than in the herring.