Quote:
Originally Posted by 3rdvogon
Surely the problem is basically one of water.
All living things that live in water have immediate access to it. Those things that live on land have three options.
A. They move about until they can reach a source of water when they need it. Which is what most animals do.
B. They hijack the water they need from other living things that they take as food - again some animals do that also.
C. They transport water from the water table to the rest of their cells which is what trees and all other land plants do.
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HenrikOlsen added:
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D. They gather a reserve from rainwater for use when it's not raining.
Could "living on land" include the idea of "living outside the boundaries of oceans?" (In water, but just not ocean water.)
There's a Wikipedia article on what is known as "freshwater coral" which exists in Pavilion Lake in British Columbia. Perhaps they represent options A and D at work. (
Option D, in this case, would be like a cup overrunning.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavilion_Lake
This text was copied from the wikipedia article.
Pavilion Lake is a lake in Marble Canyon, British Columbia, Canada. It is located between the towns of Lillooet and Cache Creek (18.3 miles WNW, as the crow flies, from Cache Creek) and lies along BC Highway 99, five and a half highway miles (northeast then southeast) from Pavilion, British Columbia. Part of a karst formation, the lake is most notable for being home to colonies of microbialites, a type of stromatolite, otherwise known as "freshwater coral", and has become the subject of astrobiology research by NASA. The lake area and its foreshore were added to Marble Canyon Provincial Park in order to protect its special scientific and heritage values.
The Wikipedia article on "Marble Canyon" says that the microbialites are
unusual carbonate structures built by bacteria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_...sh_Columbia%29