Cicadas pee from trees. And they urinate a lot, new study finds
CBSN
As if lying dormant in the dirt for 17 years isn't weird enough, cicadas possess another bizarre habit: they pee like crazy, up to 10 feet per second. The news comes as they're preparing to emerge in the Chicago area, one of the most populous zones on this year's cicada map.
A study credited to two Georgia Institute of Technology authors — titled "Unifying Fluidic Excretion Across Life From Cicadas to Elephants" — posits that cicadas weighing mere grams "possess the capability for jetting fluids through remarkably small orifices."
Scientists who study such things have found that cicadas urinate in a jet stream because they consume an incredible volume of fluid.
Scientists say they've discovered the world's biggest coral, so huge it was mistaken for a shipwreck
Scientists say they have found the world's largest coral near the Pacific's Solomon Islands, announcing Thursday a major discovery "pulsing with life and color." The coral is so immense that researchers sailing the crystal waters of the Solomon archipelago initially thought they'd stumbled across a hulking shipwreck.