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FireFox
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03 Dec 2008, 6:03 pm

Me seeing the thread on giving certain animals human intelligence has given me this idea about humans themselves. Could we add some sort of gills to humans that would allow us to breathe underwater? Then we could scuba dive without having to have a tank as well as swim for much longer periods without having to stop. It would also greatly improve ocean exploration as people could stay in the oceans for much longer. Could lungs and gills coexist or must an organism have either one or the other?



Brook-lynn20
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03 Dec 2008, 6:09 pm

Hm....that's be neat.



Brook-lynn20
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03 Dec 2008, 6:09 pm

that'd*



Fraya
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03 Dec 2008, 6:22 pm

FireFox wrote:
Could we add some sort of gills to humans that would allow us to breathe underwater?


You mean like surgically attaching them? They would have to be extremely large to accommodate the oxygen needs of a mammal that size (there's a reason gilled animals are pretty much exclusively cold blooded) and there's not nearly enough room at the back of the mouth to place them so probably not.

FireFox wrote:
Could lungs and gills coexist or must an organism have either one or the other?


Amphibians have both so its possible but gills tend to be hard to keep from drying out.


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ValMikeSmith
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nodice1996
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07 Dec 2008, 9:20 pm

well, we could have gills and lungs, there is a tropical fish with both, about 4 x the size of a football, but the drying out thing would be hard.


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