Lizard Anolis aquaticus uses bubbles in order to breathe underwater

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Aquatic insects and other invertebrates are well known for carrying bubbles underwater for respiration. Now scientists have found tropical lizards that also “breathe” underwater this way—a first-of-its kind discovery.

New research shows that a dozen species of Caribbean and Latin American anoles, a type of lizard, can exhale air to create large, oxygen-filled bubbles that cling to their head. The anoles were seen periodically inflating the bubbles and then drawing them back in through their noses—so to test if they use these bubbles to breathe, scientists observed the reptiles staying underwater for more than 15 minutes, according to a paper published May 12 in the journal Current Biology.

“We think this is operating like a rebreathing device,” says study first author Christopher Boccia, a doctoral student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. That device is an apparatus that allows divers to extend time underwater by recycling exhaled air and breathing the previously-unused oxygen in it. 

Roger Seymour, a biologist at Australia’s University of Adelaide who wasn’t involved in the paper, suspects this behaviour could help the animals rid their lungs of accumulated carbon dioxide, which could escape into the water over the large surface area of the bubble.

It’s also possible that in well-oxygenated streams, the bubbles could function as a kind of “physical gill” that pulls the gas from the water via diffusion, says Boccia, who performed the research while completing a master’s degree at the University of Toronto.

 

Sources: https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/2021/05/these-lizards-use-bubbles-to-breathe-underwater// https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/lizards-breathe-underwater-bubbles-anoles

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The animal kingdom never ceases to amaze us