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Special cranial glands filter salt swallowed during underwater grazing. The figure is taken from National Geographic, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Galapagos marine iguanas sneeze out excess ocean salt

Special cranial glands filter salt swallowed during underwater grazing.

Marine iguanas dive up to twelve metres to scrape marine algae off submerged rocks. Consuming ocean water introduces high salt levels into their blood, which specialized nasal glands filter out so the iguanas can forcefully sneeze white salt crusts onto their heads.

The marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) Galápagos Islands Santa Cruz — David Adam Kess · CC BY-SA 3.0 · licence · source

Where this comes from

National Geographic

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Tags: marine-iguana, reptiles, galapagos

Galapagos marine iguanas sneeze out excess ocean salt: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Special cranial glands filter salt swallowed during underwater grazing. The figure is taken from National Geographic, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a animals fact?: Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.