Analysis of Gas Transport in Lungless and Gill-Less Salamanders Using Inert Gas Washout Techniques

Abstract

Most respiratory studies on intact vertebrate animals are concerned with the functional properties of the special respiratory organs-lungs or gills. We have become interested in the respiratory problems of a vertebrate animal which has neither lungs nor gills. Consequently all gas exchange occurs across the skin in the absence of a specialized ventilatory mechanism. This situation is found in the members of the amphibian family Plethodontidae (Wilder, 1894). We chose the species Desmognathus fuscus to characterize the relative roles of diffusion and circulatory convection in gas transport to tissues.