Bird breath better, here's how and why

Bird's respiratory capacities greatly exceed ours, but how, and more importantly why?
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Art is by Rudolph Hima, Brian Engh, Julio Lacerda, Mark Witton, etc
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Music is by Serge Pavkin, he makes great music \/
Music: 'Shine' by SergePavkinMusic
Music: 'New Habitat' by SergePavkinMusic
Music: 'Starlight' by SergePavkinMusic
Music: 'Land Of Ancestors' by SergePavkinMusic
Music: Distant Worlds - SergePavkinMusic
Music Link: • Free Music / Electroni...
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#bird #evolution #nature #paleontology #paleo #mesozoicera #mesozoic #dinosaur #dinosaurs #flying

[@grandioza3633]

Flying dinosaurs 😊

[@mhdfrb9971]

This make sense if you assume that the only job of your respiratory system is to deliver oxygen from the air to your blood as quickly as possible. Under that assumption, a bird's respiratory system is better than what we've got in our chests. However, as it goes with many assertions of evolution's "design disasters," this assumption is born out of an oversimplification and misunderstanding of a given body part's function.
Your lungs aren't just for delivering oxygen. They're also meant to scrub the air. Every part of your respiratory system leading up to the gas exchange membranes is adapted to do that, because if pollutants or contaminants reach your bloodstream, very bad things can happen. When we measure the lung's performance as a filter, birds lungs go from being superior to mammal lungs to inferior. Minor pollutants that most mammals barely notice, like the fumes from a heated teflon pan, are enough to incapitate or kill even large avians.

[@Sedimented.Studios]

you're right in that since they have much more efficient gas exchange, they will be poisoned by toxic gasses in the air much faster, but everything in biology has trade offs, animals built for long distance running aren't robust, thick furred animals like polar bears or musk ox would overheat and die in the tropics. And the trade offs involved in the avian respiratory system are rarely detrimental.

[@sauraplay2095]

Great video!

[@user-uh5bz1wi1q]

These respiratory systems in birds are in function similar to the technique of circular breathing used in wind musical instruments like didgeridoo