Circulatory Adaptation to Diving in the Freshwater Turtle
- 7 August 1964
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 145 (3632) , 591-593
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.145.3632.591
Abstract
The heart of the freshwater turtle has a functional ventricular septal defect. In ambient air there is some shunting of blood from the left to the right ventricle through the defect. During prolonged diving or N2 inhalation, the shunt is reversed and blood from the tissues bypasses the lung and enters the aorta directly. This adaptation appears to be based on the exclusive use of anaerobic glycolysis as an energy source during prolonged diving.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Prolonged anaerobiosis in a vertebrate: Anaerobic metabolism in the freshwater turtleJournal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology, 1964