Why fish are better at breathing than you are - Dan Kwartler

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Published 2024-07-09
Explore how fish use their gills to breathe, and how these processes make them some of the most efficient breathers on Earth.

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Recent studies found that elite runners can take in twice as much oxygen as non-runners. And it’s likely that this superhuman ability played a role in breaking the two-hour marathon barrier in 2019. But when it comes to breathing efficiently, not even the best runners can compete with the average fish. What makes fish some of the best breathers on Earth? Dan Kwartler explores the science of gills.

Lesson by Dan Kwartler, directed by Denys Spolitak.

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Animator's website: vimeo.com/denysspolitak
Music: www.campstudio.co/
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All Comments (21)
  • In the defense of our species a fish probably can’t run a Vienna marathon in 1 hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds
  • @JackieOwl94
    To be fair, they did have a 300 million year head start compared to our lungs, which is about half as long as complex life has been on earth. They got an amazing head start.
  • @user-je5mb9yy8n
    3:18 A blobfish doesn't look like that in its native habitat of the depths. It only looks like that if it's pulled up rapidly to above the surface. It looks nothing like this when you just leave it alone.
  • @CYCLAM3
    0:05 "If my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike"
  • @mc5574
    I like the animation, it is very well done
  • @SarimDeLaurec
    Poorblob fish. Depicted how he looks after rapid decompression instead of how he looks like in his habitat. :(
  • @ahmedkamal7095
    I swear i read the thumbnail as "how do GIRLS work"😅
  • @levy7614
    Why did the fish accept its death after losing its respiratory organs? Because it lost the gill to live.
  • 3:26 when talking about species of fish surviving through their efficient breathing, you've got cephalopods and whales. Did anyone bother to check the graphics you're including?
  • @Jessica_of_Kpop
    Why does the thumbnail is different from the title🤔🤔?
  • @salm9211
    If humans have gills they would also colonize the oceans and fight for territory. They would also build humongous infrastructures that would extract everything that is valuable in the waters until it's all depleted.
  • @jackt883
    I read that title totally wrong. Thought it said "How do girls work". If you fancy making a video on that it'd be much appreciated. 😂
  • @jonpiers2325
    this whole time i thought they breathed water like, like water WAS their oxygen as opposed to us land dwellers… Great lesson !
  • The blobfish has been misrepresented in its ideal water pressure. It’s infamous blobbiness is a result of depressurization and not seen in it’s deep sea natural habitat.
  • A lot of aquatic animals like amphibian larvae, sharks, lamprey, and certian bony fish lack an operculum. I'd take a shot and guess that operculums aren't as crucial for underwater breathing if A: the animal is only aquatic temporarily or can substitute air as well, B: they use some other motion to move water through the gills (ram breathing in sharks for instance), or C: they can absorb some oxygen through their skin.