In that extraordinary late-night moment, Farmer even thought of an alternative notion. If she was right, the notion that one-way lungs originated as athletic aids in birds was just a waste gas of a hypothesis. If alligators did breathe with a version of one-way lungs - and she had a hunch they would - then maybe so would other animals that neither fly nor maintain round-the-clock body warmth. What suddenly occurred to Farmer was that lungs of animals like alligators might have aerodynamic valves that no one had noticed. Quirky phenomena called “aerodynamic valves” steer air through open passageways, relying on the angles and shapes of the branching passageways. There are no barrier gates or fleshy valves in bird lungs that create their remarkable one-way flow. Birds keep their bodies warm, regardless of the environment, and launch themselves into the skies. The evolution of more efficient lungs, biologists have argued, helped birds develop the metabolically expensive lifestyle of aerial athletes. Once fresh air reaches the lungs, it flows in one direction through an intricacy of loopy tubes in the crucial zones where blood vessels swap out gases. There’s no downtime while used breath clears out of airways to make room for the next inhalation. Physiologists have believed that other vertebrates share this basic two-way tidal flow - except for birds.īirds’ breathing was considered more efficient. Exhale, and the air recedes along the same path, depleted of oxygen and laden with waste gas.
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