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Fish, or animals with gills must absorb oxygen from sea water which has a low available oxygen level, particularly warm sea water so they must move great amounts of water through their gills in order to get enough to survive. Sea mammals must always surface in order to get a breath and their diving depth and time is limited by this. Land mammals have more than enough available oxygen in the air to support life. To emphasize, air has a much higher concentration of oxygen when compared to water under the same conditions. Air is about 21% oxygen (1) whereas water is about 1% oxygen (1). It is interesting to see how different animals obtain their oxygen. Small insects have pores that allow oxygen to directly diffuse into their tissues, thus ridding the necessity of a complex circulatory system. 1.http://lakeaccess.org/russ/oxygen.htm

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16y ago
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12y ago

For critters that live on terra firma (land) most have a set of lungs that capture oxygen molecules out of the atmosphere and then exhale molecules of co2, or carbon dioxide. In the water most critters have the same thing but in a different form, gills. They perform the same function except they filter water to obtain the oxygen. Some exceptions to this rule are aquatic mammals, which still have lungs and must surface to breathe. However, for simple organsims the process can be radically different or they may not need oxygen at all.

Answerterrestial organisms obtain oxygen with the use of developed lung or circulatory systems. Most insects have an open circulatory system, so oxygen is absored through the skin. Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals all have closed circulatory systems and use lungs to obtain oxygen.

aquatic organisms use gills to filter oxygen directly from the water. The more complex the organism, the more complex the gill system. For example, a shark would have a more sophisticated gill system than a type of shrimp or smaller fish.

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15y ago

the respriatory system in terrestial animals pulls oxygen out of the air, while in sea animals, their system pulls it out of the water. (lungs and gills)

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13y ago

water fast

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Q: What advantage over an aquatic organism does a terrestrial organism have with regard to obtaining oxygen for respiration?
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