Alligators Lung Similar to Bird

Alligators have one way path for breathing that is similar to birds. This is the result of research by scientist that is published on Science Magazine on Jan 15. What the different on the respiratory system of these two animals?

The finding by scientist to this animals is research to dinosaurs ancestors rose to prominence. Its like transform of dinosaurs anatomy. Its different with other mammals that air enters to the lungs and flows through a network of branching tubes called bronchi, which culminate in small cul-de-sac chambers where blood vessels exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. Air then exits the lungs via the same pathway.

The last knowledge about this respiratory system just now is worked in bird lungs, bird have air sacs that may steer the air unidirectional through the lung. Similar structure in the way birds and alligators bronchi branch through the lungs caught Farmers attention.

Farmer and her coauthor Kent Sanders of the University of Utah inserted flow meters called thermistor into the lung of six living alligators to see how fast and in what direction the air moved. The primary bronchi each split into how branches shortly after the point where air enters each lung. Surprisingly, air moved through the first branch in each lung in the same direction whether alligator was inhaling or exhaling.