Newt respiratory systems

[simon]

Ok I know that newts breathe air and come to the surface to get it, but can they absorb air whilst submerged? Please feel free to go into as much detail as you want.

Also, how does the mouth of lungless salamanders differ from normal newts and salamanders? (assuming it does!)

Cheers guys
Si

 

[mark]

If you can get your hands on a copy of “Amphibian Biology” (Duellman and Trueb) it goes into some detail about amphibian respiration.

In summary - Caudates use 4 types of respiratory gas exchange - gills, lungs, skin and buccopharyngeal (mouth and cheek skin). Lungless salamanders only use buccopharyngeal and cutaneous gas exchange, cutaneous accounting for more than 90% of the exchange. The amount of exchange through each structure depends on variables such as temperature, haitat and stage of life i.e in warmer temps the lungs and buccopharyngeal mucosa play a larger role. Somewhat strangely, if the oxygen content of water is high, gills on caudate larvae play only a small role in gas exchange, the majority of respiration is through the skin. If you want to see the different contributions of the various structures and read more about the variables that change those contributions i.e activity or water oxygen levels you should get a copy of the above mentioned book as a starter.

 

[simon]

Thats great Mark. I'll look into getting the book. Thanks