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Fish gills are organs that allow fish to breathe underwater. Most fish exchange gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide using gills that are protected under gill covers (operculum) on both sides of the pharynx (throat). Gills are tissues that are like short threads, protein structures called filaments. These filaments have many functions including ...
In some fish, capillary blood flows in the opposite direction to the water, causing countercurrent exchange. The muscles on the sides of the pharynx push the oxygen-depleted water out the gill openings. In bony fish, the pumping of oxygen-poor water is aided by a bone that surrounds the gills called the operculum. [6]
In fish and some molluscs, the efficiency of the gills is greatly enhanced by a countercurrent exchange mechanism in which the water passes over the gills in the opposite direction to the flow of blood through them. This mechanism is very efficient and as much as 90% of the dissolved oxygen in the water may be recovered.
Most fish exchange gases using gills on either side of the pharynx (throat). Gills are tissues which consist of threadlike structures called filaments.These filaments have many functions and "are involved in ion and water transfer as well as oxygen, carbon dioxide, acid and ammonia exchange.
In fish, gill lamellae are used to increase the surface area in contact with the environment to maximize gas exchange (both to attain oxygen and to expel carbon dioxide) between the water and the blood. [3] In fish gills, there are two types of lamellae, primary and secondary. The primary gill lamellae (also called gill filament) extends from ...
In vertebrates, they are called a rete mirabile, originally the name of an organ in fish gills for absorbing oxygen from the water. It is mimicked in industrial systems. Countercurrent exchange is a key concept in chemical engineering thermodynamics and manufacturing processes, for example in extracting sucrose from sugar beet roots.
Gas exchange is the physical process by which gases move passively by diffusion across a surface. For example, this surface might be the air/water interface of a water body, the surface of a gas bubble in a liquid, a gas-permeable membrane, or a biological membrane that forms the boundary between an organism and its extracellular environment.
The stalk is lined by many thinly walled filaments (fimbriae), containing the majority of blood vessels used in gas exchange. Animals usually have one external gill originating on each gill arch (except the hyoid), which leads to there being three pairs of external gills in salamanders, and four in the gilled larvae of lungfish.