gill
Sign in to savethumb|right|The red gills of this common carp are visibly exposed as a result of a gill flap [[birth defect.]] A gill () is a specialized respiratory organ that many aquatic animals use for aquatic gas exchange, i.e. to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. Branchia (: branchiae, from Ancient Greek ) is the zoologists' academic name for gills.
AI overview
A gill is a specialized organ that aquatic animals use to breathe underwater by extracting dissolved oxygen from water and releasing carbon dioxide. Gills are essential for water-dwelling creatures to survive, much like lungs allow land animals to breathe air.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
12 sectionsContents
- History
- Function
- Vertebrates
- Fish
- Cartilaginous fish
- Bony fish
- Amphibians
- Invertebrates
- Plastrons<span id="Plastron" |class="anchor"></span>
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|right|The red gills of this common carp are visibly exposed as a result of a gill flap [[birth defect.]] A gill () is a specialized respiratory organ that many aquatic animals use for aquatic gas exchange, i.e. to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. Branchia (: branchiae, from Ancient Greek ) is the zoologists' academic name for gills.
The gills of some semi-aquatic clades (e.g. crabs, terrestrial hermit crabs and amphibious fishes), have also adapted to allow air respiration (breathing) on land provided the gills are kept moist. In some terrestrial chelicerates species (tetrapulmonates such as spiders and scorpions), their ancestral gills have evolved into fully air-breathing book lungs. In some planktivorous bony fish species (e.g. silver and bighead carps), the gills are also used as a filter feeding organ via comb-like projections called gill rakers.