Lecture Six Assit.Lect.

Maha Mustafa

Respiratory system
The system designed for exchange gases (O2&CO2) between the
organisms and environments.

Exchange O2 and CO2 in organisms occur by two locations

 Internal respiration (cellular respiration): gases exchange between

blood and tissue or organs.

 External respiration: gaseous exchange between blood and

environments.

Blood serves as transport for O2 and CO2 away from body cell. The
body structure which are needed for gaseous exchange between the blood
and tissue called respiratory organs.

There are two principle types of respiratory organs:

 Gills for aquatic animals

 Lung for terrestrial animals

Gills: are aquatic respiratory organs in fish and amphibians

There are two types of gills: external and internal gills

External gills: - its filamentous extensions of internal gills project

through gill slits. This type of gill is commonly observed on the
aquatic larva of most species of salamander and lungfish.

Internal gills: - are formed as outgrowth from the pharynx wall and
contained within gill slit.

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Comparative anatomy of gill

A- Cartilaginous fishes:

1- Five ‘naked’ gill slits.

2- Adjacent slit are separated by cartilaginous gill arch from which

projects a long sheet-like septum.

3- The base of the arch may also support gill rakers, small projecting
elements that help to filter food from water.

4- A small opening, the spiracle lies in front of the first gill slit. This bear
a small pseudobrach that resemble a gill in structure, but only receives
blood already oxygenated by the true gills.

B- Bony fishes

1- Usually have 5 gill slits covered by bony operculum.

2- The gill arches of bony fish typically have no septum.

3- Some species retain gill rakers.

4- The most primitive bony fish lack a spiracle, the psuedobranch

associated with it often remain, being located at the base of the
operculum.

Swim bladders:
A single elongated sac located dorsal to the digestive tract. It is called
swim-bladder, or gas-bladder or air-bladder. It has flexible walls that
contract or expand according to the ambient pressure. The walls of the
bladder contain very few blood vessels and are lined with guanine crystals,
which make them impermeable to gases. The gases in swim bladders differ
among the fishes, some swims contain pure (99%) nitrogen and some (87%)

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oxygen and all contain trace of atmosphere gases (carbon dioxide, nitrogen,
oxygen and argon).

Different between swim bladders and lungs:

Swim bladder Lung

1-located dorsal to the digestive tract 1-Located ventral

2-single sac 2-Paired

3-returning blood to the general 3-venous return enters the heart

systemic circulation before entering separately from the general systemic
to the heart circulation

Function of swim bladders:

1- Serve primarily as a hydrostatics organ.

2- Help to hearing in some teleosts (catfish, goldfish & crap).

3- Sound production- muscle attached to the swim bladder contract to

move air between sub chambers of the bladder. The resulting
vibration creates sound in fish

4- Respiration.

Nares and nasal canals:

First seen in cartilaginous fish, direct water to gills; not used to

breathe. The external nares of most fish leads to blind olfactory sacs
containing olfactory epithelium .they are often divided into an incurrent and
excurrent opening by a partition

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In terrestrial vertebrates and in man, the nasal cavity is also the initial
division of the respiratory tract the paired nasal cavity opens to the outside
through external nasal orifices. The nasal and oral cavities are connected by
means of choanae.

Jacobsons organs:
The vermonasal organs (VNO) or jacobsons organ, an organ of
chemoreception that is a part of the olfactory system of amphibians, reptiles
and mammals, although doesn't found in all tetrapoda

It is found at the base of the nasal cavity, it divided by the nasal

septum with both sides possessing an elongated(C shaped), and it is
encompassed inside a boney or cartilaginous capsule which opens into the
base of the nasal cavity.

Lungs & associated structures

Lung is elastic bags that lie within the body, their volume expands when air
is inhaled and decrease when air is exhaled.

Larynx
 Tetrapod besides mammals - 2 pair of cartilages: arytenoid &
cricoid

 Mammals - paired arytenoids + cricoid + thyroid + several other

small cartilages including the epiglottis (closes glottis when
swallowing)

 Amphibians, some lizards, & most mammals - also have vocal

cords stretched across the laryngeal chamber.

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Figure (1) Larynx

Trachea & syrinx

 Usually about as long as a vertebrates neck.

 reinforced by cartilaginous rings (or c-rings).

 Splits into 2 primary bronchi &, in birds only, forms the syrinx at
that point.

Amphibian lungs
The frog's lungs are a pair of thin-walled sacs connected to the mouth
through an opening, the glottis. The surface area of the lungs is increased by
inner partitions which are richly supplied with blood vessels. The frog
inflates its lungs by

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 filling its mouth with air

 then closing its mouth

 closing the internal openings to its nostrils

 opening its glottis

 raising the floor of its mouth thus forcing air into the lungs.

The frog's skin serves as a supplementary organ of gas exchange.

Figure (2) amphibian lung

Reptilian lungs:

The skin of reptiles is dry and scaly, so they can live in arid locations
(although many do not). However, they cannot use their skin as an organ of
gas exchange. Reptiles depend entirely on their lungs for this.

 Their lungs are considerably more efficient than those of amphibians.

 They have a much greater surface area for the exchange of gases.

 They are inflated and deflated by the bellows like expansion and
contraction of the rib cage.

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 Simple sacs in snakes

 Lizards, crocodiles and turtles - lining is septate, with lots of

chambers & sub chambers.

Bird lungs:

Unlike reptiles, birds are homoeothermic ("warm blooded"),

maintaining a constant body temperature (usually around 40°C) despite wide
fluctuations in the temperature of their surroundings. They maintain their
body temperature with the heat produced by muscular activity. This
depends, in turn, on a high rate of cellular respiration. So the demands on the
gas-exchange efficiency of the lungs of a small, active bird are great.

Although the ventilation of bird lungs is similar to that of reptiles,

their effectiveness is increased by the presence of air sacs. Although no gas
exchange occurs in the air sacs, their arrangement increases the efficiency of
lung ventilation by enabling fresh air to pass in one direction through the
lungs during both inhalation and exhalation.

Figure (3) bird lung

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Mammalian lungs:

 Multi chambered & usually divided into lobes

 Air flow is bidirectional:

 Trachea <---> primary bronchi <---> secondary bronchi <---> tertiary

bronchi <---> bronchioles <---> alveoli

 Ventilation of mammalian lungs is assisted by the diaphragm - a

muscular partition that divides the thoracic cavity from the abdominal
cavity

Figure (4) mammalian lung