How do gills filter oxygen

Want to add a little wonder to your website? Help spread the wonder of families learning together. We sent you SMS, for complete subscription please reply. Follow Twitter Instagram Facebook. How do fish breathe underwater? Do all sea creatures have gills? Why do dolphins and whales swim to the surface of the ocean? Tags: See All Tags amphibian , gill , lung , mammal , oxygen , reptile.

Fish facts: There are more species of fish than all the species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals combined. Fish have been on the earth for more than million years. The largest fish is the great whale shark, which can reach 50 feet in length.

Wonder What's Next? Try It Out Feeling fishy? Did you get it? Test your knowledge. What are you wondering? Wonder Words oxygen dissolved snorkel lung mammal gill feathery blood vessel amphibian reptile flair Take the Wonder Word Challenge. Join the Discussion.

Javy Feb 6, Thank you Wonderopolis, very helpful information!! Very helpful for my project! Thank you Wonderopolis! Mar 28, Breathing, for humans, is part of the automatic things our body does! JAVY Feb 6, Feb 6, Grayfish Jan 15, Great white sharks don't grow to fifty feet in length, our modern 'Great' white sharks grow to an average of fifteen feet, but some can exceed twenty feet.

I think you are referring to the Megalodon, the largest shark to ever live, it grew to an estimated fifty feet in length, it lived during the Early Miocene period, and went extinct 2. Thank god. Jan 16, Jan 8, Hi, alliah-- We ask that you credit Wonderopolis as the author.

Thank you for checking! Dec 10, It's amazing to think about just how diverse different species are! Douglas Sep 15, Sep 16, Younite Jul 13, Jul 16, May 23, Do you have a fish, aaliyah? Feb 28, Mir Jan 21, Jan 25, Donald Sleightholme Dec 14, Dec 18, Nov 19, Orville Nov 8, I had this as a Biology assignment, and this was exactly what I needed! Nov 10, We're glad this Wonder helped, Orville!! Kylee Nov 2, Nov 5, We're glad to hear it, Kylee!!

Sep 12, Vanessa Jun 22, I thought that fish don't breath through there mouth at all! This was very helpful!!! Jun 28, We LOVE learning new things - glad you learned something new with us! Thank you for helping me grow. Jun 9, Aww shucks. Thanks Seth! Our pleasure, Seth! Thanks for being a great Wonder Friend! Austin May 17, I thought this was a pretty good article about how fish breath underwater and I thought it was explained very well.

May 18, Apr 7, You're welcome! Claryssa Mar 22, Mar 22, Glad you liked this one, Claryssa! Wonderopolis is my favourite website to use. Mar 21, Your fav??!! Mar 14, Thanks for learning more about it with us! Feb 23, So glad we answered your questions, Kieva!

Feb 21, Awesome, Mikaylam06! So glad you finally got an answer to that one! Feb 15, Johnny Jan 19, Jan 19, We are so glad you enjoy them, Johnny! Riley Greenfield Jan 6, Jan 9, William Nov 16, Nov 17, Dec 6, Thank you for sharing your comment with us, gael.

What do you feel is fake? William pierce Nov 14, William Nov 15, Nov 16, That's cool, William! Do you have a favorite time of year to fish? Nov 15, William pierce Nov 13, Nov 14, Tai Nov 11, In theory if we had a filter in our noses to keep water out, could we breathe under water?

I was wondering if this could be done somehow. Nov 12, Goldberg Sep 28, My grade one class is wondering what type of fish this is. We can't seem to find it anywhere. Sep 29, Elizabeth Sep 7, Thank you so much!!! This really helped me for my assignment. Doaa slassi Sep 11, Yes me too thank you very much!!!!! Sep 8, We're glad we could help, Elizabeth! Thanks for commenting! Feb 8, Sep 19, Thank you. You actually gave me all the answers I needed for my science homework 'how do fishes breathe?

Wonderopolis Sep 16, James May 13, I didn't really find any of this useful. This problem is amplified thanks to sea water only containing 7 ppm of oxygen. As a result of this low concentration, 1, tonnes of sea water holds only 14 lbs. The blog DeepSeaNews critiqued Yeon's technology, estimating that, even at the low-end, such a system would need to pump and extract oxygen from around 24 gallons of water for every minute spent submerged.

Moreover, inhaling pure oxygen filtered from water can be highly toxic. While 20 percent of air is made up of oxygen, scientists have discovered that breathing air comprised of percent oxygen can cause symptoms such as blurred vision, seizures and convulsions due to fluid accumulating in the lungs.

That said, these challenges haven't thwarted others' attempts to ditch pressurized scuba tanks. Israeli inventor Alon Bodner has been developing a battery-powered prototype that uses a high-speed centrifuge to reduce the pressure of captured seawater, which causes oxygen to bubble up and escape into a separate chamber, much the same way carbon dioxide gases are released when opening a can of soda.

The drawback is that the contraption, dubbed "LikeAFish," requires a high-capacity and likely heavy power source to function.

Another more exotic approach by scientists at Nottingham Trent University in England was inspired by the great diving beetle, an insect with anatomical features that allow it to survive underwater. Tiny hairs located on its abdomen work to trap a pocket of air between its respiratory opening and the surrounding water. This protective layer of air also acts as a filter, allowing oxygen gases locked up in the water to pass in and carbon dioxide to diffuse out.

In one experiment, researchers were able to mimic this effect, to some degree, using a "super-water-repellant porous foam" material wrapped around an oxygen inhaling device. But, any way you frame it, it looks like it will be a while before a human can be one with the fishes. Tuan C. Nguyen is a Silicon Valley-based journalist specializing in technology, health, design and innovation.