Question

Humans are bipedal, terrestrial omnivores. As a species, we are adapted to a range of habitats, from deserts to mountains and from rain forests to tundra. Ultimately, however, we are descended from early hominids who evolved in African plains, and our body systems reflect this. Determine how the osmoregulatory and excretory systems of a human might be adapted if they had evolved to live in an aquatic freshwater environment.

Consider the following:

• What would be required to maintain water and salt balances, and how the osmoregulatory and excretory systems would have to change to compensate? You are encouraged to look up other (non-human; can be non-mammalian) animals that share these habitats for ideas.
• What if humans had evolved and were adapted to live in very specific habitats? In other words, it would still look *basically* like a human but would have some important differences related to its circulatory and/or breathing systems.
• What would these systems of a human that adapted to a different environment look like, and why would it look like this?
• You should consider the following parts and functions of the osmoregulatory and excretory system in your answer: Kidney – size, activity, Bladder - size, Water retention, Nitrogenous waste type (ammonia, urea, uric acid), Anything else you think is important to osmoregulatory and excretory systems.

Answer 1