Do Amphibians Breathe Through Gills

There are a few amphibians that do not have lungs and only breathe through their skin.

Do amphibians breathe through gills. Consequently do amphibians breathe air or water. Sometimes more than a quarter of the oxygen they use is absorbed directly through their skin. When they metamorphose into frogs they eventually lose their gills and start breathing through the lungs or through the skin.

Oxygen from the air or water can pass through the moist skin of amphibians to enter the blood. Frogs toads newts salamanders and caecilians are fascinating animals. Most adult amphibians can breathe both through cutaneous respiration through their skin and buccal pumping though some also retain gills as adults.

During their larval stage amphibians breathe through their gills but later on develop their lungs as they move on to land. With some amphibians it appears that they can breathe underwater when in fact they are holding their breath. Many young amphibians also have feathery gills to extract oxygen from water but later lose these and develop lungs.

This process enables them to draw oxygen from the air or water through their skin and exchange it. Most amphibians breathe through lungs and their skin. Tadpoles and some aquatic amphibians have gills like fish that they use to breathe.

There are a few amphibians that do not have lungs and only breathe through their skin. This means that they deal with slow diffusion of oxygen through their blood. Amphibians have primitive lungs compared to reptiles birds or mammals.

As they grow to adulthood amphibians normally become land-dwelling creatures lose their gills and develop lungs for breathing. The transformation isnt the same in all amphibians but. Because they breathe through their skin extreme care must be exercised when handling an amphibian.