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Types of Respiration Through Gills

Submitted by ncarbone on Thu, 02/14/2019 - 23:05

Fish exhibit many different ways of breathing through their gills. One of these ways is called pumping ventilation. Through ventilation the organism remains still but actively moves the gills continuously in order to pass water through. Other fish will move around constantly to pass water through their gills but won’t actually move their gills. This is called Ram ventilation and is seen in sharks and tuna. Squid and octopus ventilate their gills by taking water into their mantle cavities. By ejecting water though siphons they provide their gills with oxygen and propel themselves for locomotion at the same time. Overall fish gills allow for high oxygenation levels. Water leaving the gills loses 80-90% of initial oxygen content in fish. Mammals remove only 25% of oxygen present in lung air and crabs enable only 7-23%. Gills have filaments lined with lamella that help with respiration. However, when taken out of water these lamella stick together and prohibit the organism from respiring.

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