FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

ROXAS AVENUE, ROXAS CITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL
Selected Topic in Teaching Zoology (Sci 412)

Respiration in the
Lower Animals
Topic

Joebane U. Capapas, Jr. Dr. Jocelyn Villaruz

Discussant Professor
Lower forms of animals
• Animals of relatively simple or primitive
characteristics as contrasted with humans or with
more advanced animals such as mammals or
vertebrates. 
Phylum Porifera
• Sponges are animals that belong to the phylum
Porifera, which means "pore-bearing."
• Sponges breathe by moving water through
pores, called ostia, which cover their body.
Sponges respire through a process called
diffusion. ​
• Simple diffusion​ is where chemicals, like oxygen
and carbon dioxide, naturally move from areas
of high concentration to areas of low
concentration.
Sponges do not have complex digestive,
circulatory or respiratory systems to move
nutrients and oxygen around their bodies. Rather,
each cell is independent and performs its own
oxygen using diffusion. When sponges pump
water into their body, nutrient and oxygen-rich
water passes over the cells.
Phylum Cnidaria/coelenterata

• Cnidarians lack organs. This means that they do

not have respiratory or circulatory systems. Like
the cells in sponges, the cells in cnidarians get
oxygen directly from the water surrounding
them.
Cnidarian cells exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide
by diffusion between cells in the epidermis with water
in the environment, and between cells in the
gastrodermis with water in the gastrovascular cavity.
Respiration in cnidarians are carried on by individual cells
that obtain their oxygen directly from water—either that in
the coelenteron or that of the environment—and return
metabolic wastes to it. Thus, all physiological functions are
carried out at no more than the tissue level of differentiation.
Phylum Platyhelminthes
Flatworms do not have
a respiratory system.
Instead, they have
pores that allow oxygen
to enter through their
body. Oxygen enters the
pores by diffusion.
Phylum nematoda

While nematodes have digestive, reproductive,

nervous and excretory systems, they do not have
discrete circulatory or respiratory systems.
 Nematode respiration relies on a process
called diffusion.
They receive oxygen through their skin.
Diffusion allows oxygen to even out inside their
bodies.
Phylum Annelida

Respiration in annelids occurs primarily through

their moist skin, although certain species have
evolved specialized gills or use paired projections
called parapodia in gas exchange.
• Earthworms do not have lungs or gills, rather they
breathe through their moist skin. Their body is
covered by a mucus layer. Air dissolves on the mucus
of their skin, so they must stay moist to survive. 
Although gas exchange generally takes place
through the skin of some annelids, others occur
through gill filaments in some polychaetes or
through the rectum of aquatic oligochaetes.
Although oxygen may be transported directly in the
blood, it is usually carried by a respiratory pigment,
either hemoglobin or chlorocruorin. 
  Bristle worm

Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that
bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin.
 Gas exchange takes place through the thin body wall in
all aquatic oligochaetes; however, some tubificids and naids
are known to pump water into the anus to effectively
increase the body wall surface area available for gas
exchange, and other taxa have ciliated anal gills that serve a
supplementary role to body wall gas exchange. In addition,
some species of tubificids also have respiratory
pigments that aid in respiration. These additional
respiratory mechanisms allow those taxa to survive and
occupy habitats with very low dissolved oxygen.
Tubifex tubifex worms
PHYLUM MOLLUSCA
Basically all molluscs breathe by gills that are called ctenidia
(comb-gills) because of their comb-like shape. In terrestrial
molluscs this respiration organ is reduced, but still
respiration takes place in the pallial cavity. That is why it is
also called the snail's respiratory cavity.
Phylum
Mollusca
Cephalopods exchange gases
with the seawater by forcing
water through their gills, which
are attached to the roof of the
organism. Water enters the
mantle cavity on the outside of
the gills, and the entrance of the
mantle cavity closes.
Phylum Echinodermata
The structure of the echinoderm respiratory system
is fairly simple, across the group, though each class
of animals within the phylum has its own specific
respiratory adaptations. In general, echinoderms
typically respire by simple diffusion, using gills or
specialized projections, like tube feet or pockets, to
circulate water and oxygen through their bodies.
 Asteroidea
Respiration or gas exchange
occurs in two locations on a
starfish. The first location is
through the thin skin on the ends
of the tube feet. Gas exchange
also occurs in the dermal gills or
papulae. These gills are lined with
cilia that move to produce a
current. 
 Crinoidea
Crinoid arms serve three
major functions: respiration,
suspension feeding, and
locomotion. The large surface
area of the arms facilitates
gas exchange in respiration.
As passive suspension
feeders, crinoids also rely on
their arms to capture tiny
food particles from the water
column.
They lack respiratory system, but have a water-vascular system
(network of water-filled canals).
ophiuroidea
Respiration occurs through
cilia-line sacs called bursae
located between the arm bases
on the central disk.  Oxygen is
transported via a series of
sinuses and vessels throughout
the body, where it is
exchanged with carbon dioxide
for return to and elimination
through the sacs. 

Brittle star
ECHINOIDEA
Many sea urchins possess five pairs of external
gills, located near the mouth. In urchins that
have them, these are the main organs of
respiration. Fluid can be pumped into the gills
using muscles, but this only really happens
when the animal is low on oxygen. Tube feet
can also be used as respiratory organs.
HOLOTHUROIDEA
Respiratory trees are unique to sea cucumbers and are
not found in any other echinoderm. All species of
Holothuroids must use at least one of these organs to
breath. Respiratory trees are often fed oxygen by the
sea cucumber actually breathing through their anus.
They not only excrete waste from their anus, but
expand and contract their muscular body walls in a
slow rhythm, which in turn draws in and expels water.
This is where the respiratory trees extract the oxygen.
 Gases and
nitrogenous wastes
exchange between
water and coelom
through respiratory
trees.
 PHYLUM ARTHROPODA
Aquatic arthropods (crustaceans and the
chelicerate horseshoe crabs) possess gills for
respiration. Although they vary in structure and
location, the gills are always outgrowths of the
integument (skin) and are therefore covered by
the exoskeleton, which is thin in this area and not
a barrier to the exchange of gases.
Terrestrial arthropods possess tracheae and book
lungs as respiratory organs. Tracheae are a system
of tiny tubes that permit passage of gases into the
interior of the body.
Book lungs are chitin-lined internal pockets
containing many blood-filled plates over
which air circulates. Most spiders possess
tracheae and book lungs, but large spiders
(such as tarantulas) and scorpions possess
book lungs alone.
In some arthropods the tracheal tubes are bathed by blood, but in
insects the minute terminal endings (tracheoles) are embedded in
the tissues, even within muscle cells.
 Tracheae are a unique arthropod invention and
undoubtedly evolved numerous times in the phylum,
for they are found in myriapods, insects, and
arachnids. Tracheal systems are highly efficient for
these small, terrestrial animals. The small, external
openings (spiracles) reduce water loss, the chitinous
lining prevents collapse, and the small size of the
arthropod and consequent short length of the tubule
eliminates the need for moving gases in and out by
active ventilation (diffusion usually being sufficient). 
Cellular respiration is the process by which
organisms combine oxygen with foodstuff
molecules, diverting the chemical energy in these
substances into life-sustaining activities and
discarding, as waste products, carbon dioxide and
water.
It is also a series of metabolic processes that take
place within a cell in which the biochemical energy is
harvested from an organic substance (e.g. glucose)
and then stored in an energy-carrying biomolecule
(e.g. ATP) for use in energy-requiring activities of the
cell.