Some people say that "All life is aquatic." What do they mean by this?

Question

Even down to a tiny protist swimming in pond water, we are all in water somewhat. There is water vapor in the air. However, I would like a more elaborate answer for this question. "all life is aquatic" is a genaric phrase, and I cant decipher it.

Answer 1

In the 1950's Bell Labs put out a teaching aid 60 minute movie titled "Hemo the Magnificent". This is still the best elementary explanation I know of for the "all life is aquatic" chestnut. Rent a copy, and it will say this better than I can.

Blood is very, very much like seawater of several million years ago before runoff and evaporation made the oceans as salty as they are today. The capillary system means that every cell has its own "oceanfront" to receive oxygen and nutrition, and to carry away waste, thus each cell is a specialized aquatic animal.

The icing on the cake is that when the service sent me to the South Pacific, they were careful to warn me to be extremely careful of cutting myself on a coral formation because some coral polyps can live and reproduce on our bloodstream, and I could have my own internal coral reef until I died of the parasite. I not sure I believe this, but it certainly makes the point.

Answer 2

The electrolyte milieu of land organisms is very nearly the same as the ocean. For example, the Sodium concentration of mammalian blood is very nearly identical to the sodium concentration in the oceans. Nearly 70% of you is water!

All organisms live in the ocean. Land organisms simply carry their ocean with them.

Answer 3

Life originated in water. Hyperthermophilic bacteria originated in submarine hydrothermal vents.

Answer 4

It's a matter of playing with word definitions, really. I suppose it's OK if you want to knock your brain out of comfortable, familiar patterns of thinking so that you can 'wake up' a bit, but you'd really have to stretch the point to take that statement seriously.