Salt and the Sea Serpent

摘要

In 2009, Harvey Lillywhite wanted to know if true sea snakes got thirsty. To catch some, his research team angled a small motorboat toward a distinctive band of water caused by two converging currents in the Papa-gayo Gulf in Costa Rica. Sneaking up on his quarry, a yellow-bellied sea snake floating on the surface, he gently slipped the venomous animal into a net and then into a bucket. After collecting a dozen or more snakes this way, the physiological ecologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville went back to a temporary lab to test each one. He laid the first one on a towel. After its skin had become dry to the touch, Lillywhite weighed the snake and dropped it into fresh water.