MSC 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Testicle, Digestion, Tangled

• School: University of Miami
• Department: Marine Science
• Course: MSC 350
• Professor: Jill Richardson

Document Summary

Diving: the ability to stay submerged has an advantage for prey and to avoid predation, this ability requires adaptations in oxygen delivery, storage, buffering, and utilization, lung adaptations. Lung size is not significantly increased relative to body size in most cases (except manatees, dugongs, sea otters) Pressure volume of a mass of gas in inversely proportional to the pressure it is experiencing collapsing of lungs and trachea and ribs are possible in some marine mammals is possible in order to accommodate this. Marine mammals able to avoid nitrogen narcosis and the bends but forcing air into non gas exchange regions of the bodies. Exhaling before diving so very little air is left in lungs and collapse trachea so air is separated to upper part of respiratory tract so there is not interaction between alveoli and blood. Female elephant seals may use narcosis as a form of painkiller.