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Animal Miscellaneous: Famously Unique, How Does an Octopus Breathe? The all page

KOMPAS.com – Octopus or in scientific terms named Octopoda is a mollusk animal of the class Cephalopoda. It is famous for being unique because it has eight legs and can emit poisonous ink to protect itself from enemies.

All aquatic creatures including the octopus need to filter the oxygen out of the water and then throw it away so it doesn’t sink.

Like fish, octopuses also breathe using their gills. The gills of the octopus are located in the cavity of the mantle and are expelled outside the body.

However, unlike mollusks and other fish, octopuses require more oxygen and therefore have three hearts.

Two hearts pump blood to the two gills, where oxygen exchange occurs.

Also read: Animal Sundries: Like the Tongue, the Octopus Sense Its Prey Through Its Arms

The way the octopus breathes

Reported Sciencing, Tuesday (13/3/2018) the mouth of the octopus is shaped like a beak which is located in the mantle cavity on the back of the octopus head and is surrounded by eight legs.

The entrance to the mantle cavity is through the mouth, where there are gills in it.

Water is carried into the octopus’s mouth and then passed through its gills to be pushed back into the water. When water is pushed over the surface of the gills, oxygen is taken up by the blood in the capillaries of the gills.

The gills of an octopus are made up of many hairy filaments. These filaments allow a larger surface area through which oxygen-containing water passes.

This large surface area is what allows the octopus to take in more oxygen with each breath.

Oxygen exchange in the gills

Oxygen is then taken up in the capillaries through a ‘backflow exchange’ process. Oxygen will be taken up in the capillaries as long as the oxygen level in the blood is lower than that in water.

When reverse current exchange is used, the oxygen level will always be lower in the blood than in the water making it possible to perform a continuous process of oxygen exchange between water and blood.

In other words, the blood flow to the gills is opposite to the direction of water flow. This allows the octopus to exchange maximum oxygen per breath.

In fact, an octopus is able to achieve the 11 percent oxygen saturation level in the blood it needs. This is due to the octopus’s muscular system which forces oxygenated water across the gill filaments.

Also read: New Study Says Octopuses Also Dream When They Sleep

Whereas most fish and mollusks only achieve an average oxygen saturation of 3 percent.

Two of the octopus’ three hearts pump blood through its gills. The oxygenated blood leaves the gills and returns to the third heart to be pumped back throughout the body.

Oxygen is carried in proteins hemocyanin, not through the red blood cells commonly found in mammals.

This is what causes the octopus’s blood to turn blue because of the womb Hemocyanin which is soluble in blood plasma.

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