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Posted by on Mar 28, 2017 in TellMeWhy |

Why Do Animals Need Oxygen?

Why Do Animals Need Oxygen?

Why Do Animals Need Oxygen? We must have oxygen to live. Every living animal cell needs oxygen for its vital metabolic activities (the process of converting fuel to energy), and every cell must also get rid of its carbon dioxide, the gaseous waste of its metabolism. In the simple animal forms each cell gets oxygen for itself out of the surrounding environment and gives off carbon dioxide in the same way.

Every cell in an animal requires oxygen to perform cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is the process by which animals take in oxygen and exchange it for carbon dioxide and water as waste products. Animals have specialized systems that help them do this successfully and efficiently. Even a fish will drown if it can’t breathe underwater.

The actual exchanging of gases is dependent upon important structures such as lungs or gills, and the principle of diffusion. Diffusion is the process where molecules or particles move from an area where they are very concentrated into an area where they are less concentrated.

In the more highly developed organisms a special mechanism makes the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide on behalf of the entire body, and a carrier fetches the oxygen and carries away the waste for all the cells. The carrier is the blood in its circulatory system, and the special exchange mechanism is the respiratory system with the lungs as the key organs.

fetal hemoglobin

Did you know that in mammals, fetal hemoglobin has a higher affinity for oxygen than adult hemoglobin does? Makes sense, because the fetus has to collect oxygen through the placental wall. In order to compete with the mother’s blood, fetuses have a special form of hemoglobin that binds oxygen better and can compensate for the disadvantage of the placental barrier. The fetal hemoglobin lasts in the infant until approximately six months after birth.

We have developed from water dwelling creatures and still spend the first nine months from our conception lying in a bath of warm fluid, called the amnion, receiving the oxygen necessary for the cells to do their work from our mothers. In fact, we are still essentially water-dwellers, carrying our watery environment around within us, inside our skins.

Because we have evolved lungs instead of gills we are able to live on land, but the air must be sufficiently rich in oxygen-about 20 per cent. Above 8,000 feet breathing begins to become difficult and the symptoms of mountain sickness, headache, nausea and vomiting may appear.

If we did nothing but rest, needing only a minimum supply of air, we would still need 300 quarts of oxygen every day. In a single minute of ordinary activity half a pint of oxygen has to be transferred from the air to the blood. For this half pint the lungs must process about five quarts of air every minute. An athlete running a race at sea level breathes as much as 120 quarts of air a minute to get the oxygen he needs to keep him going, which shows the importance of healthy lungs.

 Content for this question contributed by Tacy LaDuke, resident of Chicopee, Hampden County, Massachusetts, USA