Ammonotelic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A classification of organisms that primarily excrete waste as ammonia due to its high solubility in water
2. Describing creatures that eliminate nitrogenous waste in the form of ammonia directly into their surroundings
3. Pertaining to animals that dispose of nitrogenous waste primarily in the form of ammonia, usually to conserve water in aquatic environments

Etymology: Ammonotelic is a modern scientific coinage, built from classical building blocks rather than handed down from ancient Greek or Latin. Its first element comes from "ammonia," itself named after the Egyptian god Amun, whose worshippers near the Libyan oasis of Siwa were associated with salts collected from the nearby sand. The second element, "telos," is Greek for "end" or "completion," and in biology it is combined with "-telic" to describe a process that goes to a particular final state. Joined with "-ic," the word means something like "ending in ammonia." The pieces are arranged to describe a biochemical choice. Animals excrete nitrogen from proteins and nucleic acids as a waste product, and the form they choose depends largely on how much water they can spare. Ammonia is highly soluble and toxic, so it is typically flushed out by aquatic animals that have plenty of water around them. The term was coined to group these animals together, alongside the ureotelic (urea-excreting) and uricotelic (uric acid-excreting) categories that describe other solutions to the same problem.

Synonyms: ureotelic, INVALID