The morphology of the lung of the East African tree frog Chiromantis petersi with observations on the skin and the buccal cavity as secondary gas exchange organs.
Abstract
The class Amphibia consists of three distinct Orders, the Anura - the tailless
amphibians; the Urodela - the tailed amphibians, and the Apoda - the snake-like
amphibians also called caecilians. The anurans inhabit both aquatic and terrestrial
environments, the urodeles are predominantly aquatic, whereas the caecilians are
largely fossorial terrestrials. To varying extents the amphibians exhibit bimodal
breathing, basically utilising the skin and the lungs for gas exchange. The organisation
of the lung of the anurans has been investigated by Czopek (1955), Okada et al. (1962),
Dierichs (1973), Meban (1973, 1977), Hutchison, Whitford & Kohl (1968), Smith &
Rapson (1977), Bils & Hughes, (1978), Welsch (1983), Pohunkova & Hughes (1985)
and Goniakowska-Witalinska (1985, 1986); that of the urodeles has been examined by
Czopek (1962), Hughes (1970), Hightower, Burke & Haar (1975), GoniakowskaWitalinska (1978, 1980 a, b, c, d, 1982) and Stark-Vancs, Bell & Hutchison (1984); the
caecilian lung has been studied by Welsch & Storch (1973), Pattle, Schock, Creasey &
Hughes (1977), Welsch (1981) and Maina & Maloiy (1988). Comparative studies on
the morphology of the amphibian lungs have been carried out by Czopek (1955),
Szarski (1962, 1964) and Tenney & Tenney (1970).
The amphibian lung exhibits remarkable structural variation (Smith & Rapson,
1977; Goniakowska-Witalinska, 1985), with the more energetic species, largely the
anurans, having more elaborate septate lungs and those of the urodeles being simple
with a smooth saccular internal surface. The structure of the amphibian lung,
particularly among the anurans, has not been thoroughly investigated (GoniakowskaWitalinska, 1985). Goniakowska-Witalinska (1985, 1986) examined the lung of the
tree frog Hyra arborea. This species is known to be highly metabolically active and the
lungs are richly vascularised (Czopek, 1965; Goniakowska-Witalinska, 1973). In the
present study the lung of the East African tree frog Chiromantis petersi which, together
with Chiromantis xeraphelina, is probably the most xerophilous of all anuran
amphibians (Loveridge, 1970, 1976) has been investigated using the scanning and
transmission electron microscopes with the purpose of supplementing the available
knowledge on the design of the anuran lung and in general that of the amphibians. The
buccal cavity and the skin, areas of great importance in gas exchange in amphibians,
have also been examined.
URI
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1256655/pdf/janat00045-0035.pdfhttp://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/49637
Citation
J. Anat. (1989), 165, pp. 29-43Publisher
Department of Veterinary Anatomy, University of Nairobi