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Comparative Anotomy of Respiratory System
Comparative Anotomy of Respiratory System
Comparative Anotomy of Respiratory System
Respiration is the process of obtaining oxygen from the external environment & eliminating
Carbondiaoxide.
1. External respiration - oxygen and carbon dioxide exchanged between the external
environment & the body cells
2. Internal respiration - cells use oxygen for ATP production (& produce carbon
dioxide in the process)
Respiratory organs:
Cutaneous respiration
a. respiration through the skin can take place in air, water, or both
b. most important among amphibians (especially the family Plethodontidae)
Gills
Cartilaginous fishes:
1. 5 ‘naked’ gill slits
2. Anterior & posterior walls of the 1st 4 gill chambers
have a gill surface (demibranch). Posterior wall of last
(5th) chamber has no demibranch.
3. Interbranchial septum lies between 2 demibranchs of a
gill arch
4. Gill rakers protrude from gill cartilage & ‘guard’
entrance into gill chamber
5. 2 demibranchs + septum & associated cartilage, blood
vessels, muscles, & nerves = holobranch
Agnathans:
1. 6 - 15 pairs of gill pouches
2. pouches connected to pharynx by afferent branchial (or gill)
ducts & to exterior by efferent branchial (or gill) ducts
Larval gills:
1. External gills
a. outgrowths from the external surface of 1 or more gill
arches
b. found in lungfish & amphibians
2. Filamentous extensions of internal gills
a. project through gill slits
b. occur in early stages of development of elasmobranchs
3. Internal gills - hidden behind larval operculum of late anuran tadpoles
Swim bladders:
1. May be paired or unpaired (see diagram above)
1. Larynx
a. Tetrapods besides mammals - 2 pair of cartilages: artytenoid & cricoid
b. Mammals - paired arytenoids + cricoid + thyroid + several other small cartilages
including the epiglottis (closes glottis when swallowing)
c. Amphibians, some lizards, & most mammals - also have vocal cords stretched
across the larynx.
2. Trachea & syrinx
a. Trachea
i. usually about as long as a vertebrates neck (except in a few birds such as
cranes)
ii. reinforced by cartilaginous rings (or c-rings)
iii. splits into 2 primary bronchi &, in birds only, forms the syrinx at that
point
b. Reptilian lungs
i. simple sacs in Sphenodon & snakes
ii. Lizards, crocodilians, & turtles lining is septets,
with lots of chambers & sub chambers
iii. air exchanged via positive-pressure ventilation
4.
a. Avian lungs - modified from those of reptiles:
i. air sacs (diverticula of lungs) extensively distributed throughout most of
the body
ii. arrangement of air ducts in
lungs ----> no passageway is a
dead-end
iii. air flow through lungs
(parabronchi) is unidirectional
5.
a. Mammalian lungs:
i. multi chambered & usually
divided into lobes
ii. air flow is bidirectional:
6. Trachea <---> primary bronchi <--->
secondary bronchi <---> tertiary bronchi <---
> bronchioles <---> alveoli
7 . Air exchanged via negative pressure ventilation, with pressures changing due to
contraction & relaxation of diaphragm & intercostals muscles
Gills in Protochordates
A large and sieve-like pharynx in majority of these animals performs dual function of
respiration and trapping food particles which are brought in through the current of water. The
primitive pterobranch hemichordates (Cephalodiscus and Rhabdopleura) have either no gill slits
or have very few and sport tentaculated arms, which other than food gathering, also function as
efficient respiratory organs. Balanoglossus possesses a large pharynx having as many as 700
pairs of gill slits, which appears to be a necessity in the burrowing habitat of the animal.
The free-living urochordates, such as Salpa and Doliolum do not possess many stigmata
or gill slits as their entire body is permeable to oxygen but in the sedentary ascidians pharynx is
prominently enlarged and perforated with no less than 200,000 stigmata for filter-feeding.
Cephalochordates use pharynx for both filter-feeding and respiration and hence carry
150-200 pairs of gill slits.
Agnathans have 6-15 pairs of gill pouches, which are lateral extensions of pharynx and
contain gill lamellae within. Cyclostomes are called marsipobranchs, which means “pouched
gills”, since the gill lamellae are housed in gill pouches. The hagfish, Myxine has only 6 pairs of
gill pouches whose ducts join together and open to the exterior by a single pair of openings,
while Bdellostoma carries 6-15 pairs of gill pouches that vary in different species and open to the
outside independently. In Myxine behind the gill pouches there is a single pharyngocutaneous
duct on the left side, which is a modified gill pouch which drains excess water that fails to enter
the gill pouches. The lamprey, Petromyzon, has 8 embryonic and 7 adult paired gill pouches that
open to the exterior by independent openings.
Most Elasmobranchs possess 5 pairs of gill slits and a pair of spiracles. There is no
operculum covering the gill slits in cartilaginous fishes. A demibranch is a bunch of gill
lamellae attached on one side of the interbranchial septum. Hence, there are altogether 9 pairs of
In bony fishes gills are covered with an operculum that is made of flattened skeletal
plates and there is no spiracle as in Elasmobranchs. There are 4 pairs of gill pouches, each
containing two demibranchs, making the total number of demibranchs in bony fishes as 8 pairs
or four pairs of complete gills or holobranchs. Teleosts always breathe with their mouth open and
eject expiratory water by opening operculum. Gills in Chondrostei, Holostei and the lungfish
Neoceratodus exhibit partial reduction in their interbranchial septa, which happens to be
somewhat intermediate condition between Elasmobranchs and teleosts.
EXTERNAL GILLS
External gills develop from the outer wall of pharynx or from the exposed portion of
branchial arch. They occur in larval lampreys, few larval fishes, Polypterus, lungfishes, some
larval teleosts and all larvae and some adults of amphibians. There is a single pair of larval gill in
the chondrosteian bony fish, Polypterus, which has a long axis carrying gill lamellae. The
African and South American lung fishes possess 4 pairs of feathery external gills. The larval
forms of some amphibians and some adult urodeles possess external gills which arise simply as
folds of skin on the surface of the III, IV and V branchial arches but weakly supported by the
skeletal system. Perennibranch amphibians as Necturus and Proteus retain external gills
throughout life along with 2 or 3 pairs of gill slits, which are functionless as the water does not
pass through pharynx. Instead, gills are waved in water by means of muscles attached at the base
of gill axis for respiration. The larvae of limbless amphibian, Caecilia, have a pair of
exceptionally large leaf-like gills with profuse blood supply. Salamanders that inhabit hill
streams, e.g. Eurycea and Salamandrina, which belong to family Plethodontidae have neither
gills nor lungs for respiration and survive only on cutaneous respiration.
AIR BLADDER
Barring agnathans, cartilaginous fishes and few bottom dwelling teleosts, all fishes carry
a gas-filled air bladder on the dorsal side of the gut, which serves as hydrostatic organ. On the
ventral side of the bladder there occurs a highly vascularised area called red gland that is
supplied by intestinal artery and portal vein and which has unique capability of extracting free
oxygen from the blood and release it into the air bladder in order to make it inflate. Small pouch-
like diverticula called oval that can be closed or opened by sphincter muscles is the site of
reabsorption of gases. Secretion and absorption of gases in swim bladder occurs under the
control of autonomic nervous system, based on the depth at which a fish is swimming.
Many species of fishes developed breathing organs other than gills for supplementing
deficiency of oxygen in water. These are as follows:
Dendritic Organs
They are also called arborescent organs as they are highly vascularised tree-like,
branched structures produced by the second and fourth gill arches and located in the
suprabranchial chamber, posterior to the gills. Paired gill fans at the opening of branchial
chamber force air over the dendritic organs as the fishes gulp air. Dendritic organs are found in
catfishes such as Clarias.
Labyrinthine Organs
These are rosette-like concentric plates of tissue present in the suprabranchial chamber
of climbing perch (Anabas), Trichogaster, Osphromanus and Polycanthus. Respiration takes
place when these fishes gulp air. Perches can migrate from one pond to another by breathing air
through labyrinthine organs and using pectoral fin spines to walk on land.
Pneumatic Sac
It is a tube like extrabranchial diverticulum that extends up to tail in some cat fishes such
as Heteropneustes, which can survive out of water for considerable time using these organs for
air breathing.
Air Chamber
Buccopharyngeal epithelium
Integument
Eels (Anguilla) breathe through skin while migrating from the American and European
rivers to Sargasso Sea in Bermuda. As much as 60% exchange of gases takes place through the
highly vascularised skin.
Gut epithelium
Fishes such as Callichthys, Hypostomus, Doras, Misgurnus, Cobitis can suck and release
water through anus and exchange of gases can take place in the rectal lining. In giant loach
(Cobitis) and Misgurus lining of stomach and intestine is used as respiratory organ.
LUNGS
Lungs of Polypterus and the ganoid fish Calamoichthys are asymmetrical and connected
by pneumatic duct on the ventral side of pharynx. The blood is supplied to lung by pulmonary
artery that emerges off the 6th aortic arch, but unlike in lungfishes venous blood returns to
hepatic vein.
Lungs of Dipnoi (Choanichthys) are bilobed or paired as in Protopterus (African lung
fish) and Lepidosiren (South American Lung fish) and are connected to oesophagus via a
pneumatic duct. But the Australian lung fish (Neoceraodus) has a single lung that is used as
hydrostatic organ.
In tetrapods, embryonic lungs arise from pharyngeal wall as a hollow mid-ventral
evagination that subsequently bifurcates to form two lungs that carry an envelope of peritoneum.
AMPHIBIA
Lungs of amphibians are two simple sacs, narrow and elongated in urodeles and bulbous
in anurans enclosed in a single peritoneal membrane and supplied by pulmonary arteries and
drained by pulmonary veins. Left lung in limbless amphibians is rudimentary. Lungs are
vestigial in salamanders inhabiting hill streams where in fast flowing water buoyancy would not
be a desirable trait.
Amphibians lack ribs and hence use floor of the buccal cavity to force air in and out of
the lungs. Frogs and toads modify 2nd, 3rd and 4th visceral arches to produce a plate-like
hyobranchial apparatus that lies in the floor of oral cavity and is connected to squamosal bone of
skull by petrohyal muscle and to sternum by sternohyal muscle. One breathing cycle is
completed in four steps in anurans that is affected by contraction of these two muscles.
REPTILES
Lungs are narrow and elongated in snakes and lizards extending up to two-third of the
body cavity but are more bulbous in turtles and crocodiles. The left lung is rudimentary in
limbless lizards and snakes. There are well formed alveoli in lungs which are housed securely in
a pair of pleuro-peritoneal cavities. Breathing in snakes and lizards is carried out by a
combination of hyoid plate, nostril valves and ribs or only by the movement of rib cage, while
tortoises and turtles make use of muscles surrounding peritoneal membranes. Crocodiles are the
only living reptiles that possess a muscular diaphragm for breathing as do the mammals.
BIRDS
Lungs are secured into pleural cavities and extend into membranous air sacs that occupy
all available space in the body cavity and also penetrate into bone marrow cavities. This makes
the bones pneumatic in birds and help to reduce body weight which is so necessary in flight.
Majority of birds have 5 pairs of air sacs, namely, cervical at the base of neck; interclavicular
often united across midline; anterior thoracic placed lateral to the heart; posterior thoracic
within the oblique septum and abdominal within the abdominal cavity. Sometimes there are also
axillary air sacs near the pectoral muscles. The flight muscles inflate and deflate the air sacs like
bellows with each stroke of wings.
Air duct system is unique in birds as there are no alveoli as found in reptiles and
mammals. Trachea divides into two bronchi which enter the lungs and branch into mesobronchi
that again divide to form parabronchi. From each parabronchus, bunches of air capillaries arise
which loop back into their own lumen to form anastomosis that eventually leads into the air sacs.
Air capillaries are minute and only one cellular layer thick and contain respiratory epithelium
and rich network of blood capillaries.
During inspiration and expiration, air passses through the air capillary anastomosis into
the air sacs and back twice making it a double respiration.
MAMMALS