Name: Respiratory System  
Definition: Respiration is the process of taking in oxygen, producing energy with it, and excreting gasseous waste products. (Ref; comparative anatomy)
Structure: The skeletal muscles of the chest and neck, pulling on the ribs, and the diaphragm are parts of the body that permits breathing. The lungs are the organs inside the chest where respiratory gasses such as oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged. In amphibians, respiration also occurs, in part, through the thin, moist skin, but some species of salamanders have only gills and either no, or small lungs. Read about the comparative anatomy and physiology of the respiratory and circulatory systems.


Function: As the chest expands and contracts, gasses move through the windpipe, called the trachea; oxygen comes in, and carbon dioxide is expelled. The exchange occurs in thin, alveolar sacs, because the chemical attraction of oxygen for the hemoglobin pigment of red blood cells is greater than its attraction for carbon dioxide. These cells wear out in about 120 days, and are continually replaced by hematopoiesis.


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