Evolution

Marine invertebrates (those that live in seawater) are covered in membranes that are fairly permeable to water and to small molecules such as ammonia. So water can diffuse in either direction as required, and ammonia can diffuse out as quickly as it forms. Invertebrates that live in fresh water do have problem: the salt concentrations within their bodies are around 1%, much greater than in fresh water. For this reason they have evolved surrounding membranes that are largely impermeable to salts (to prevent their diffusion out of the body) and to water (to prevent osmotic flow in.) But these organisms must also be able to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with their environment. The special respiratory organs (gills) that mediate this process, as a consequence of being permeable to these two gases, will also allow water molecules (whose sizes are comparable to those of the respiratory gases) to pass through. In order to protect fresh-water invertebrates from the disastrous effects of unlimited water inflow through the gill membranes, these animals possess special excretory organs that expel excess water back into the environment. Thus in such animals, there is a constant flow of water passing through the body. Ammonia and other substances that need to be excreted are taken up by this stream which constitutes a continual flow of dilute urine.