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The axolotl is unusual in that it has a lack of thyroid-stimulating hormone, which is needed for the thyroid to produce thyroxine in order for the axolotl to go through metamorphosis; it keeps its gills and lives in water all its life, even after it becomes an adult and is able to reproduce. Neoteny is the term for reaching sexual maturity ...
External gills are the gills of an animal, most typically an amphibian, that are exposed to the environment, rather than set inside the pharynx and covered by gill slits, as they are in most fishes. Instead, the respiratory organs are set on a frill of stalks protruding from the sides of an animal's head. The axolotl has three pairs of external ...
Adult salamanders often have an aquatic phase in spring and summer, and a land phase in winter. For adaptation to a water phase, prolactin is the required hormone, and for adaptation to the land phase, thyroxine. External gills do not return in subsequent aquatic phases because these are completely absorbed upon leaving the water for the first ...
It goes through paedomorphosis and retains its external gills. [4] Because skin and lung respiration alone is not sufficient for gas exchange, the common mudpuppy must rely on external gills as its primary means of gas exchange. [5] It is usually a rusty brown color [6] and can grow to an average total length (including tail) of 13 in (330 mm). [7]
The whale shark sucks in a mouthful of water, closes its mouth and expels the water through its gills. During the slight delay between closing the mouth and opening the gill flaps, plankton is trapped against the dermal denticles which line its gill plates and pharynx. This fine sieve-like apparatus, which is a unique modification of the gill ...
One suggestion is that wings initially evolved from tracheal gill structures and were used to catch the wind for small insects that live on the surface of the water, while another is that they evolved from paranotal lobes or leg structures and gradually progressed from parachuting, to gliding, to flight for originally arboreal insects. [13]
Another important adaptation that aids breathing while out of water is their enlarged gill chambers, where they retain a bubble of air. These chambers close tightly when the fish is above water, due to a ventromedial valve of the gill slit, keeping the gills moist, and allowing them to function while exposed to air.
Greater siren out of water. Greater sirens are carnivorous and prey upon invertebrates (such as insects, crustaceans, gastropods, bivalves, spiders, molluscs, and crayfish) [11] and aquatic vertebrates (such as small fish) [11] with a possible preference for molluscs (such as snails and freshwater clams), [8] [12] although they have been observed to eat vegetation such as algae.