How Do Animals Breathe Underwater? (2024)

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How Do Animals Breathe Underwater? ›

When in comes to breathing under water, marine organisms breathe in different ways. Some absorb oxygen through their skin, some rely on gills, and others gulp air into their gas bladders.

Typically, mammals cover almost every inch of land, such as humans and cows, but there are some mammals that have adapted to live primarily underwater such as whales. They don't actually breathe underwater, they simply take a big gulp of air at the surface and then hold their breath under they can resurface again.

An aquatic animal breathes by absorbing free oxygen into its blood through its gills or directly through its body surface. Oxygen (O2) is consumed in surface waters by all aquatic organisms: fish, plants, algae, bacteria, and invertebrates.

Fish and many other ocean animals use gills, branching organs that have many, many small blood vessels called capillaries. As a fish opens its mouth, water runs over the gills, and blood in the capillaries picks up oxygen that's dissolved in the water.

gill, in biology, type of respiratory organ found in many aquatic animals, including a number of worms, nearly all mollusks and crustaceans, some insect larvae, all fishes, and a few amphibians.

Instead, they have a fascinating adaptation known as 'unihemispheric sleep'. To be able to sleep, whales shut down half of their brain at a time. Being partially awake allows them to continue breathing and be aware of their surroundings. Whales will usually stay in place as they sleep near the surface.

Home > About whales & dolphins > How do whales and dolphins breathe? Whales and dolphins are mammals and breathe air into their lungs, just like we do. They cannot breathe underwater like fish can as they do not have gills. They breathe through nostrils, called a blowhole, located right on top of their heads.

Basing it on the longest dive recorded, the title would go to Cuvier's beaked whales. During a 5-year study of 23 members of the species, scientists recorded one individual diving – and thus holding its breath – for a whopping 3 hours and 42 minutes.

Flexi Says: Several types of animals can breathe underwater, including cnidarians (e.g., jellies, coral), crustaceans (e.g., crabs, lobsters), echinoderms (e.g., sea stars, sea cucumbers), and fish. Very simple animals such as jellies take in oxygen from the water by simple diffusion.

Some sea animals like dolphins and whales do not have gills and they cannot breathe underwater. They breathe in air through blowholes that are located on the upper part of their head.

Do fish get thirsty? ›

While fish do drink some water — salty or fresh, depending on their surroundings — through their mouths, they mostly absorb it through their skin and gills via osmosis. "You've got to think of a fish as sort of a leaky boat in the water," Tim Grabowski, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii, told Live Science.

Gills allow fish to take in oxygen from the surrounding water and eliminate carbon dioxide from the blood. Sharks can have up to seven external gill openings, but most species have five. Gill arches are considered part of the skeleton; they hold the gills in place. The arches support one or two rows of gill filaments.

Gills only work when water is flowing over them. The vast majority of fish species cannot survive in air for lack of oxygen. However, there are a number of fish species that are capable of breathing air.

There's even one group of fish that have lungs and gills. They're called lungfish. They can stick their noses and mouths out of the water and take a gulp of air to fill their lungs. Some lungfish breathe air that way all the time.

When in comes to breathing under water, marine organisms breathe in different ways. Some absorb oxygen through their skin, some rely on gills, and others gulp air into their gas bladders.

Diving mammals can store more oxygen in their bodies than non-diving mammals such as humans. 'One of the reasons for that is that they have more haemoglobin in their blood. That is the protein in red blood cells, which transports oxygen,' explains Brasseur.

Sperm whales and dolphins sometimes dive to great depths and stay under- water for 40 to 60 minutes, and some- times even longer. The record was set by the Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris). Researchers tagged these animals and found that they dived to 2992 metres and stayed underwater for up to 138 minutes.

Certain terrestrial animals, such as earthworms and amphibians, can breathe through their skins, but amphibians have simple lungs as well. All reptiles, mammals and birds breathe using lungs; in birds there is also a system of air sacs and air spaces within the bones that make breathing more efficient.

Animals that live inside water but do not possess gills include whales and dolphins. These animals breathe with the help of blowholes that are located in the upper regions of their heads.