Image by Ocrambo via Wikimedia Commons. The breathing One of their solutions is to breathe faster than other birds. Bird Respiration. Image by L. Shyamal via Wikimedia Commons. The blood Haemoglobin is the molecule vertebrates use to snatch oxygen out of the lungs and carry it through the bloodstream.
Gif by BerserkerBen via Wikimedia Commons. The powerhouse of the cell The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Image by Pschemp via Wikimedia Commons. But why does this help? But why all the effort? Why not fly around? Bar-headed goose in flight. Image by Tsrawal via Wikimedia Commons. August 25, Categories Class of bar-headed goose Himalayas Mount Everest nature's solutions quirky nature unique adaptions.
Posted by Daniel Hutchinson. Daniel Hutchinson says:. September 7, at pm. Erin says:. Napin Karnchanachari says:. August 27, at pm. Joel Launder says:. Rory Wills says:. August 27, at am. August 26, at pm.
Joshua Boyte says:. Flora Norton says:. Kelsey says:. August 25, at pm. Steph says:. Because for every hydrocarbon atom that goes into the Earth, an oxygen atom is not used up in the decay process.
Massive amounts of carbon lignin were going into the Earth, so massive amounts of oxygen were building up in the atmosphere. Today, oxygen is 21 percent of the atmosphere. But around million years ago, oxygen was well over 30 percent. There was so much oxygen that insects, who have very inefficient ways of breathing, were able to get huge. Dragonflies had a wingspan of three feet, millipedes were eight feet long. Amphibians—frogs and such—also have inefficient lungs, and they were able to get as big as dining room tables.
The microorganisms of the time eventually became aware of this surge in oxygen. So the now-worried microorganisms got their committee MC together and went to see Mr. MC : We think there is a dangerous situation developing, because oxygen levels have gotten higher every year and they might now be at 35 percent. MC : With indigestible lignin, there is nothing to keep it from continuing to go up. And the whole experiment of life on Earth will be over.
Yes, I agree we have to do something. For a million years, oxygen levels continue to rise. The even more worried microorganisms come back to Mr. But I can give you a koan. So the microorganisms go away and debate about what this means for 10, years or so. But thanks to this Isaac Newton of a mushroom spore, they realized what they had to do. They had to give off a special chemical enzyme that dissolves the lignin and breaks it up into smaller pieces externally.
And so they invented dry rot. The decay process pulls oxygen out of the atmosphere and binds it to the hydrocarbons, releasing carbon dioxide CO 2 and water H 2 O as a result. This is what happens when wood burns very rapid oxidation , when we digest food moderate oxidation , and when organic material decays slow oxidation.
Once the secret of how to oxidize lignin was understood, fungal spores and bacteria began to break down all the dead wood that was not already fossilized, using up oxygen in the process, and so the level of oxygen in the atmosphere began to decline rapidly. It went from a high of above 30 percent during the Carboniferous Period million years ago to around 12 percent at the end of the Permian Period million years ago.
This was bad news for most of the life on Earth, because it had gotten addicted to this abnormally high oxygen level. Ninety-five percent of all life on Earth died—strangled by an atmosphere so low in oxygen. It was the largest extinction event in the history of life on Earth.
Some of the 5 percent of life forms that did manage to survive went to Mr. Thanks to this Isaac Newton of a mushroom spore, they realized they had to give off a special enzyme. And, 5 million years later, which is the time it took to design this very complicated thing, Mr. It was super-efficient compared to any previous lung system and made the best use of the limited oxygen. The animals that received this gift from Mr. Their new lungs were so efficient that when oxygen levels crept slowly back up to 20 percent over the next many tens of millions of years, dinosaurs were able to get very big—bigger than land mammals like elephants have ever gotten, or ever could get.
The super-efficient lungs of many dinosaurs could deliver oxygen to every part of their massive bodies. And having hollow bones helped to reduce their overall weight.
When birds evolved from dinosaurs they were able to make very good use of this super-efficient lung system. Or that should be the end. About years ago, Mr.
VCP found that he could dig down below the surface of the Earth and extract this fossilized lignin, which had turned into coal—and burn it to release the energy that was trapped when it was first deposited. This allowed Mr. It was a happy success story once upon a time. Now it has started to become a big problem. Ninety percent of all the fossil fuels—coal, oil, gas—that we burn today were deposited during the Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian periods.
All that hydrocarbon is now being released into the atmosphere. What do anti-vaxxers and anti-GMO campaigners have in common? So Mr. By burning all these fossil fuels, Mr. VCP is releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a rate , times faster than it was deposited in the first place.
This is causing the atmosphere of the planet to heat up so quickly that it will shortly be damaging, perhaps fatal, to Mr. VCP, unless his civilization figures out a solution.
A mountain climber spotted a bar-headed goose overhead while summiting Mount Everest back in , according to Science. Scientists marveled at how the creature could ascend nine kilometers above the earth?
Scientists have long known that bar-headed geese boast an enhanced ability to bind oxygen to their hemoglobin. To fill this gap in the literature, physiologist and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and her colleagues devised a unique experiment: starting in , the team raised 19 geese from hatchlings and trained them to fly in a yard-long wind tunnel while fitted with physiological sensors and oxygen masks, according to The Washington Post.
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