An odd question about mammals...
- Thread starter Claudea
- Start date
Funny.
I just posted something related to this last night.
Indirectly anyway.
This Thread
Anyway, as I was saying in that thread, I saw a documentary about some thick liquid that was super-oxygenated.
They were training mice to breathe this liquid (strengthening their lungs) instead of air.
It was an effort towards allowing humans to breathe liquid (not water, unfortunately) so they could dive to great depths without their lungs collapsing.
Not exactly what you are looking for, I know, but I thought it was pretty interesting.
I just posted something related to this last night.
Indirectly anyway.
This Thread
Anyway, as I was saying in that thread, I saw a documentary about some thick liquid that was super-oxygenated.
They were training mice to breathe this liquid (strengthening their lungs) instead of air.
It was an effort towards allowing humans to breathe liquid (not water, unfortunately) so they could dive to great depths without their lungs collapsing.
Not exactly what you are looking for, I know, but I thought it was pretty interesting.
Evidence from the study of experienced free-divers suggests that humans themselves are better equipped to stay underwater than we normally think. Forgotten the details but there was some suggestion that there is some interesting old junk in our genome that could be rekindled if we were forced back into the water.
Another kind of related, but not quite what you were lokking for bot of information...
I have read that if you skydive in shorts and a short sleeved shirt, once you reach a certain speed, you do not have to breathe because your body is "absorbing" (in a manner of speaking) oxygen through its pores.
I have even heard that it is possible to drown if you dive through thick enough clouds for too long.
(take the second with a grain of salt, but the first one I saw on a documentary on the Discovery Channel)
I have read that if you skydive in shorts and a short sleeved shirt, once you reach a certain speed, you do not have to breathe because your body is "absorbing" (in a manner of speaking) oxygen through its pores.
I have even heard that it is possible to drown if you dive through thick enough clouds for too long.
(take the second with a grain of salt, but the first one I saw on a documentary on the Discovery Channel)
I can't remember the specifics, but I do remeber learning that new born babies (neonates:
isn't that a cool word?) have a reflex that propells then forward when placed in water, and on top of that, I have heard that babies are good swimmers. So, I wouldn't be surprised if this was true.There is also an island which has a group of swimming monkeys. They do a type of doggie paddle –it’s dead cute. I saw it on a tv program about a group of wild monkeys, but http://www.monkeyjungle.com/wild.htm was the closest I could find.
I guess the main concerns would be getting the air into the lungs and adapting to the type of air available, skin damage from the water, heat loss, and specifically for mammals, live births in water and feeding the offspring with milk. I’m wondering if these specifications have to form a creature who looks like whales/seals/hippos, that is do water mammals have to be big fat lumps?
I guess the main concerns would be getting the air into the lungs and adapting to the type of air available, skin damage from the water, heat loss, and specifically for mammals, live births in water and feeding the offspring with milk. I’m wondering if these specifications have to form a creature who looks like whales/seals/hippos, that is do water mammals have to be big fat lumps?
Originally posted by Dudeyhed
I can't remember the specifics, but I do remeber learning that new born babies (neonates:
I seem to recall seeing some discovery channel thing (a looong time ago) saying most/all babies could breathe underwater for the first few weeks after birth... Can anyone confirm that? If so... what do you think would happen if we just left them underwater, and raised them underwater...? Do you think the ability would just stay with them?
hmm, I don't know if the babies can actually breath underwater, perhaps it's that they can just hold their breath more efficiently underwater for longer, or something along those lines.
By saying raising them underwater do u mean just exposing them to water often? That's an interesting idea, but I don't think there would be too many parents willing to let their baby take part in that sort of an experiment!
Originally posted by Claudea
Yeah, i guess that was just foolishness and poppycock.
maybe not, but if the babies were to be placed in water a lot during thier infancy, as in made to swim a lot and go underwater often, perhaps their bodies would become more tuned for a life in water.
I wouldn't rule out the possibility that humans could evolve to have a life in water but I would say that it would not be restricted to the water. Just by thinking about the theory of natural selection makes me think that humans, given the time (like hundreds of years/generations) could develop into a species that has underwater efficiency (if that's what it's called).
Sounds crazy though doesn't it?
Yes you could! An easy way to do it would be to study the physiological differences in lungfish and then breed them according to the traits that best them to live totally underwater. Now I know that lungfishes are not mammals but the point is that they spend much of their time on land when the pond tries up and breath oxygen from the air, just like mammals. So that would be conceivable to do, i.e., make their habitat totally water again and not on land.
But your asking about mammals. Well. Dolphins are mammals and they already live entirely underwater! You see what I mean? Now if your asking about artificially breeding a dog or cat to live underwater, I think that would be possible, but not in one person's limited lifetime. Evolution occurs over millions and billions of years. Did I answer your question?
But your asking about mammals. Well. Dolphins are mammals and they already live entirely underwater! You see what I mean? Now if your asking about artificially breeding a dog or cat to live underwater, I think that would be possible, but not in one person's limited lifetime. Evolution occurs over millions and billions of years. Did I answer your question?
Could mammals evolve to breath underwater? Whales and dolphins may be well-suited for ocean life, but they still have to surface for air. I'm sure it's possible, but I have a hard time imagining an evolutionary pathway that would allow humans develop gills/water-breathing mechanisms.
Excellent question! Yes they can. And you might be surprised to learn that even though whales and dolphins are now aquatic, they evolved from ancestors that were mammals that once lived on land! In the case of dolphins, they lived on land about 50 million years ago. The ancestor to whales were four-legged hoofed mammals which lived on land, similar to the hippopotamus, and I believe they evolved back into aquatic life also between 50-60 million years ago.
The evolutionary path from fish to amphibians to reptiles to dinnosaurs to birds; or from fish to mammals is not a one-way street. There is also a "transitional" evolution. You can think of this as like reverse evolution. Animals adapt to their environments through evolution but there is no reason why an animal that now lives on land can evolve back into an animal that now lives in water. In the case of whales, they first evolved back into freshwater and then into ocean saltwalter.
The evolutionary path from fish to amphibians to reptiles to dinnosaurs to birds; or from fish to mammals is not a one-way street. There is also a "transitional" evolution. You can think of this as like reverse evolution. Animals adapt to their environments through evolution but there is no reason why an animal that now lives on land can evolve back into an animal that now lives in water. In the case of whales, they first evolved back into freshwater and then into ocean saltwalter.