Aquatic Animal Organs

Ally Taylor | Ms. Mitton | North and South Esk Regional

Not all aquatic animals have the same way of breathing. The most common breathing for an aquatic animal is
Jellyfish absorb the oxygen in water through their skin. using gills. They use a network of blood vessels to draw
A gastrovascular cavity inside their bodies serves a in oxygen from flowing water and diffuse it through gill
duel purpose; digesting food, and moving carbon membranes.
dioxide and oxygen around. This process is called Have you ever wondered why fish always open and
diffusion. Even though they don’t need as much oxygen close their mouth from time to time, they do this action
as other animals because they don’t have actual tissue to help their gills obtain more oxygen. When they gap
inside them, there are drawbacks to breathing using their mouth it create a current of water flow over the
diffusion. Most likely animals that use diffusion will not gills.
grow very large because it takes so much longer for Gills can look different in different species because of
oxygen to reach other parts of the body. their environment most fish have gills that are in their
head while organisms such as axolotls have external
Sea stars are another example of diffusion breathing, gills.
they obtain the oxygen through bumps in their skin Gills work kind of the same as capillaries in our alveoli’s.
called papulae. Where as sea cucumbers breath a Whenever they gap their mouth and draw the water into
little differently, they have a ‘respiratory tree’ located their gills, highly vascularized tissue sucks out oxygen
in the body cavity near the anus. As the cucumbers and expels carbon dioxide.
rectal opening sucks in water, the respiratory tree
extracts the oxygen and releases carbon dioxide.
 Digestive System

Unlike humans, aquatic mammals (except sea otters) don’t need to chew their food. They swallow fish and other
sustenance whole. The food they then swallow travels down the esophagus into the stomach.
The digestive system of aquatic life consists of the mouth, esophagus, stomach, large and small intestine, colon
and rectum. The liver and pancreas are also critical organs in aiding the digestive system.
Stomach:
In cetaceans (any member of an entirely
aquatic family ex. whales, dolphins) the
number of stomach chambers changes
throughout species.
The chambers all have different jobs, some
store the food while others look after the
protein digestion. Although, most of the
absorption of nutrients occurs in the first
quarter of the small intestine. The left overs
then pass through the large intestine, then
reaches the colon and rectum and exits
through the rectum.
 Integumentary System

Instead of skin aquatic animals have an organ Blubber thickness is a way scientists and veterinarians
called blubber which covers the entirety of their check body condition and nutritional status.
bodies. When trying to determine the nutritional status of an animal
Blubber is a fat filled tissue that keeps the animal through its blubber thickness, you have to take multiple
warm in a cold, thermally conductive environment. measurements; in general a dorsal, lateral and ventral
This organ is not only where they store their fat but measurement at the level of the dorsal fin is the minimum in
it also acts as an energy storage deposit and helps this type of assessment.
streamline the body, reducing drag as they swim. Another good place to asses nutritional status is with the fat
Even though blubber covers the whole body of depot right behind the blowhole called the nuchal fat pad.
cetaceans, the blubber differs structurally in In nutritionally stressed animals this area will become
different areas of their bodies. concave and show the outline of the skull which is called
The blubber in the thoracic area is more “peanut head”.
energetically active, meaning that if the animal is
nutritionally stressed the fat in this area will
become mobilized.
The blubber in the caudal peduncle region in more
structured and has a higher percentage of collagen
and fibers.
 Cardiovascular System

This system includes the heart, blood vessels, blood, Like all other mammals cetaceans and pinnipeds have a
blowhole, trachea, bronchi and lungs. four chamber heart and the general arrangement of blood
These organs are in charge of carrying oxygen particles vessels is very similar.
and discharging carbon dioxide.
Cetaceans and pinnipeds are both capable of deep
dives, they are able to dive so deep because they have
increased blood volume, increased number of red blood
cells, increased hemoglobin and increased myoglobin in
their muscles.
All of these factors help them preserve more oxygen in Dorsal Aorta Heart
their bodies.
They also collapse their lungs so less gas exchange
happens when they are deep diving; they are able to
collapse their lungs because they have joints connected
to their ribs.
Also important, is a decreased heart rate and metabolic
rate which helps the oxygen they are storing get used
longer in deep dives. Lung Blowhole
 Reproductive System

Some aquatic animals reproduce asexually and some reproduce sexually like humans do. Asexual reproduction
only requires one organism while sexual reproduction requires two.
Budding and fission- the division of one organism into two- is an example of asexual reproduction.

Many species have both a male and female gender. The Sharks and other egg- producing animals can be:
males and females usually differ in size and color. Oviparous – eggs laid and hatched outside the
Some species only have one ‘gender’ which houses both mother’s body;
the female and male reproductive organs, they are called Ovoviviparous – eggs hatched within the mother’s
hermaphrodites. body; or
To complicate matters further, there are two categories of Viviparous – eggs develop into embryos, which have
hermaphrodites, sequential and simultaneous. an umbilical-type connection with the mother, that
Sequential hermaphrodites produce both female and result in live birth. Humans are viviparous.
male organs, but only one works at a time, these animals
start out as one gender and eventually switch.
Simultaneous hermaphrodites have both male and
female organs that both work so they can mate with any
other adult.