Comparison Of The Respiratory System Between Mimus Polyglottos And Orcinus Orca

The evolutionary path of a whale is a fascinating process of a terrestrial mammal that evolves into a marine mammal. This evolutionary path started with one of the earliest ancestors called “Pakicetus”. A Pakicetus was discovered to be a land animal with four legs that had teeth as carnivores. It skull structure was long, but this organism didn’t look like any marine animal. The scientist then discovered that on the skull’s ear region it was surrounded by a bony wall. This feature on an organism only was distinct from one type of species, scientist discovered that this animal “Pakicetus” was an ancestor of a whale. By comparing the early whales Pakicetus to the next generation of ancestors Ambulocetus, the Ambulocetus whale looks more like

The origin of modern day whales, a mystery that has puzzled paleontologists for years, may have just been solved with the discovery of an ankle bone. This discovery might sound simple and unimportant, but the bones of these ancient animals hold many unanswered questions and provide solid proof of origin and behavior. The relationship between whales and other animals has proven to be difficult because whales are warm-blooded, like humans, yet they live in the sea. The fact that they are warm-blooded suggests that they are related to some type of land animal. However, the questions of exactly which animal, and how whales evolved from land to water, have remained unanswered until now.

The lung of mammals would not work very well for fish, because one breath underwater would fill them with fluid and make them useless. Nonetheless fish need oxygen to breath, too. In order

The conditions that the captured killer whales are forced to live in are not acceptable replacements for the wildlife habitats that they have been ripped from. All the enclosures that the orcas are kept in do not provide an adequate amount of space that the animal requires. The size of an orca in relation to the size of the tanks they are forced to live in is comparable to the

Though often seen as fierce killing machines, Orca whales, more commonly known as killer whales, are much different. In some ways, these mysterious creatures are much like humans. Many people are fascinated by these whales when they see them perform in marine parks such as SeaWorld. What most people don’t realize is that the life of these whales is not as great as it may seem. There is much evidence that proves captive life will never be adequate. There is no doubt that life in captivity is no match for life in the wild.

Small air sacks called alveoli are at the tips of the bronchioles. When air reaches them, the oxygen concentration is high, which causes diffusion into red blood cells travelling through pulmonary capillaries (7). The red blood cells then distribute the new oxygen to the rest of the body. When they reach the alveoli again, they exchange carbon dioxide (a form of cell waste) for new oxygen, and repeat the process. The carbon dioxide is moved through the bronchioles, bronchi, and trachea in the form of exhalation.

Sea lions and whales, Plesiosaur analogues, can endure environments which would kill a human. Humans are at risk of illness or death when returning from a great depth to the ocean's surface. Under pressure, nitrogen liquefies, or dissolves into the bloodstream, and an abrupt reduction in pressure can cause it to want to escape the body in the same way gases in a pressurised can wish to. Whales overcome this problem, because their rib cage and lungs collapse and compress under higher pressure: forcing the air into non-absorptive areas of the lung, and blood flow is reduced to the lung, reducing the intake of air and importantly, nitrogen:

It was an important article because it was one of the first widely available to the general public that started dispelling the myths that surrounded the Orca up to that point. Chadwick’s article, from 2005 is also a decade old, but the thrill of scientific discovery and enthusiasm for understanding the Orca still reverberates.

Each single alveoli is wrapped with capillaries. Because of this, both the alveoli and capillaries are made up of a simple epithelium, which is a very thin tissue. This single layer of thin cells creates a short distance for gases to diffuse through. The oxygen will then be able to move through the thin capillary walls and into the cells while the carbon dioxide passes through the thin capillary walls from the cells. The short diffusions distance allows for a rapid gas exchange. This rapid and efficient gas exchange is required so that the cells can get the energy that they need for

They use oxygen to breath using lungs. They use their blowhole which is nostrils. Their nostrils moved to the top of their head due to adaptation a long time ago. Whales have completely voluntary breathing, unlike land mammals. They have control over when to breathe. Orca can stay underwater for almost two hours without breathing. They are bradycardic, which means they can slow their heart rate when they are underwater. This reduces the amount of oxygen that is used. Myoglobin is present in large amount in whales. It’s a protein like hemoglobin, but it has a higher affinity for binding oxygen. When they dive, the lungs collapse which keeps them from rupturing. Whales absorb 90% of the oxygen they take in. The respiration starts when Orca comes up to the surface of the water and muscles around the blowhole contract to open it, the carbon dioxide is exhaled due to the contraction of the diaphragm. The muscle around the blowhole relaxes, and fresh air is inhaled. The blowhole is then closed. The air goes through the nasal passages, pharynx, larynx, and trachea, and then to the lungs. Oxygen is transported into the bloodstream via capillaries found in the sac in the lungs. The heart pumps the blood with the oxygen to the body’s extremities. The carbon dioxide is returned to the lungs and process repeats itself. In the starfish, respiration is quite different from

At the end of the bronchioles, there are clusters of microscopic, stretchy air sacs termed alveoli that inflate in a balloon-like fashion. Oxygen from the air is then incorporated into the bloodstream via the air sac walls while the carbon dioxide waste is transferred from the blood to the alveoli where they readily delate causing exhalation. Unfortunately, not all lungs function as so.

Orcas biological history entails high endurance for hunting expeditions, traveling hundreds of miles a day in the wild. Aisling Cronin, animal rights activist, pointed out in Killer Whales Don’t Belong in Captivity that, “In the wild, orcas can swim up to 100 miles per day – a phenomenal amount, in comparison to the exercise they receive in captivity” (Cronin, 1). Orcas travel with the sole purpose of hunting. In nature, they hunt on fish and seals. Again, due to lack of exercise, Orcas body structures adapt to conserve energy by decreasing the mass of some muscles.

The human body comprises of two respiratory sponges called lungs. The left lung is slightly smaller than the right as it makes room for placement of the heart. Due to this slightly smaller size, it only contains two lobes whereas the right lung has 3 lobes. Both lungs are host to the network of air sacs or alveoli which transport the air from the outside environment to the external and internal respiration processes.

As a whale breathes air in through the blowhole at the top of its head, the air enters the lungs, oxygenates the blood and travels through the body to feed all of the tissues. The gases in the air dissolve in the fluids of the body. These gases include nitrogen. As the whale descends deeper and deeper into the ocean, the air has to become more and more compressed. This will force more of the gases to be dissolved into the tissues. If the lungs were really large, more nitrogen (for example) would be able to be contained and then absorbed, which would create toxicity in the body. If the whale ascended too quickly with all that gas absorbed in the tissues and not enough in the lungs, it would lead to the Bends (or decompression sickness).

Using the example of humans, we ventilate in order to get oxygen from the air and into our lungs so that the oxygenated blood can be carried around our bodies and gas exchange can take place. When we breathe out, this is expelling or getting rid of the waste product of gas exchange and respiration which is carbon. To help gas exchange be efficient for mammals we have specialised alveoli to make diffusion of gases in the lungs strait forward. The alveoli are air sacks made of thin permeable walls that the oxygen can pass through from the air into the surrounding tissue and the blood and cells. Reversely, these sacks also let carbon dioxide diffuse from the blood and out into the air. Water vapour can also be lost from the surface of the alveoli and into the lungs which we can see condensing as we breathe out on cold days.