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Orally urinating turtle boffin in nominative-determinism classic case

Shit Fun Chew probes mouth-excreting chelonian

We're obliged to reader Roger Denholm for alerting us to the best example of nominative determinism we've seen for many moons - the case of Shit Fun Chew and the orally urinating turtle.

New Scientist reports that Alex Yuen Kwong Ip of the National University of Singapore has been studying Pelodiscus sinensis, known to its mates as the Chinese soft-shelled turtle.

This creature has the unusual and somewhat distasteful habit of urinating through its mouth, as Ip proved in tests. He was ably assisted in his endeavours by said Shit Fun Chew, whose name we were initially inclined to dismiss as absurdly improbable, given the circumstances.

However, here's the proof.

Appropriately, the term "nominative determinism" was coined by New Scientist journo John Hoyland back in the 1990s. He was alerted to an article on incontinence treatment in the British Journal of Urology, authored by AJ Splatt and D Weedon, having just received copies of Pole Positions - The Polar Regions and the Future of the Planet, by Daniel Snowman, and London Under London - A Subterranean Guide, co-written by Richard Trench. ®

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