Alligators-no bad breath worries!

Okay, that’s not really true, but that was my first thought when I read the news in the current issue of Smithsonian Magazine, that a recent University of Utah study reveals that an Alligator’s lungs are unidirectional. Sounds like they don’t exhale, doesn’t it?

But that’s not what it means. It means there’s a continuous flow of fresh, oxygenated air (unlike our lungs that always have some old, stale air in them!). If you’re curious, I found this page that has a good explanation–and Flash Animation-of unidirectional lung working.

The really cool thing is not the fact that alligators get more oxygen this way, it’s that previously, it was though that only birds had unidirectional lungs. So somewhere back in the day, it looks like crocs and birds evolved from the same type of organism…and it sounds to me like another connection between birds and dinosaurs.