anaerobic mammal respiration?

[sum yun gai]

ok, here's the story. i found this quiz whilst browsing the internets. it has a question which asks

How do mammals respire?

with the choices of aerobically, anaerobically, and *both* aerobically and anaerobically. my question is: how the fork do mammals respire (that's breathe amiright?) anaerobically? unless they mean the anaerobic processes which cause our muscles to feel sore after a lot of exercise? i can't think of any mammals which "respire" anaerobically.

[SemiNomad]

They're probably talking about cellular respiration.

[Zombie Protestor]

Not finding much; how about this?

[Watery_tart]

I'm thinking both unless the whole "death by paint" thing is a myth

I'd say aerobically

If that means breathing through your lungs

[sum yun gai]

aerobically means you breathe oxygen, anaerobically means you don't need oxygen to breathe. this is why i'm having problems with that one question, because even marine mammals need to come up to breathe oxygen after awhile

and does cellular respiration count as mammal? if so, then i guess that could work, although i'd *love* to see a lactating cell at some point in my life...

[catastrophile]

. . . so you're saying you think the answer was 'aerobically' -- does the quiz say that's wrong?

[sum yun gai]

oops, i guess i missed that part. yeah, the answer is that mammals respire both aerobically *and* anaerobically. and apparently this is what 8th graders learn in science class....

[James]

Yeah. ANAEROBIC EXERCISE WITH THE RUNNING FAST FROM DINOSAURS AND SUCH. ALSO SOMETHING TO DO WITH HOLDING YOUR ARM IN THE AIR FOR AGES. Or was that something else?

[Zombie Protestor]

Yeah, but people don't breathe through our skin in any meaning of the word. If you paint yourself or put on a skin-tight body suit, the result is the same: you have reduced the ability for heat to transfer from your body to the surrounding environment and may have inhibited the production of sweat. So, your body starts reporting that it is stuffy and it can't "breathe", but it does not do this when you are submerged underwater.

As for how a mammal could respire anaerobically, I have a few theories on what they mean:

1) Monotremes, like platypi, lay eggs, and although eggshells have pores that allow oxygen transfer, I don't imagine it is sufficient for normal mammalian fetal growth (Although Wikipedia says, "However, the egg is retained for some time within the mother, who actively provides the egg with nutrients"). Remember, being warm-blooded means you consume more food, energy, and oxygen than cold-blooded creatures, and a platypus fetus would be growing rapidly and consuming its food reserves equally fast (although Wikipedia says, "[A monotreme's] metabolic rate is remarkably low by mammalian standards, although the extent...is uncertain."). Perhaps they have a prenatal method of consuming this energy without the need for so much oxygen, or a partial anaerobic system. I don't know, I'm not a zoologist.

(Interesting side note here, I read this on Wikipedia:

The key physiological difference between monotremes and other mammals is the one that gave them their name; Monotreme means 'single opening' in Greek, and comes from the fact that their urinary, defecatory, and reproductive systems all open into a single duct, the cloaca.

)

2) Farts. Our bodies (or more specifically, the bacteria in our bodies, which kind of debunks this theory) produce gases, including methane, without the need for oxygen. Maybe that's their reasoning.

[loofah]

They're probably talking about cellular respiration.

[Zombie Protestor]

Oops, forgot to mention my say on that part in my post.

Fuel molecules commonly used by cells in respiration include glucose, amino acids and fatty acids, and a common oxidizing agent (electron acceptor) is molecular oxygen (O2). There are organisms, however, that can respire using other organic molecules as electron acceptors instead of oxygen. Organisms that use oxygen as a final electron acceptor in respiration are described as aerobic, while those that do not are referred to as anaerobic.

The cells of mammals need (until we find this elusive non-air-breathing mammal) oxygen as an oxidizing agent in order to process sugars and such. The only organisms I'm finding that do not require oxygen are simple organisms like bacteria.

EDIT: Well, I may be wrong here, and this might be the correct interpretation.

Individual human cells are also facultative aerobes (An anaerobic microorganism which can grow under aerobic conditions): they switch to lactic acid fermentation if oxygen is not available. However, for the whole organism this cannot be sustained for long, and humans are therefore obligate aerobes (require oxygen for aerobic cellular respiration).

Still, basing a definitive answer on what an organism can do under non-ideal circumstances is not very accurate towards a definition of its behavior. People like to swim, but we don't say that we are both land-dwelling and aquatic as we might say of most amphibians.

[Zombie Protestor]

aerobically means you breathe oxygen, anaerobically means you don't need oxygen to breathe.

Actually, that's incorrect (in the biological sense, anyway, it's completely correct in the standard sense). Respiration (biologically) is "the release of energy from glucose or other organic substances inside living cells". In aerobic organisms, oxygen is used to convert the fuel, and in anaerobic organisms, fermentation is used.

[DarthCat]

For what it's worth, some of the other quizzes on that site are fun, too.


(It was 91, though I couldn't pull that out of the HTML properly. Also, I didn't even know I knew that many countries!)

Also, my dead body is worth $5,665.

Furthermore, I can take on 24 five-year-olds, am 88% in agreement with NASA, and am 78% geek. It is a toss-up whether or not I'll survive in a Zomb-pocalypse (57%).

[JD-Rom]

For what it's worth, some of the other quizzes on that site are fun, too.

Hell yeah. It says I could take on 23 5-year olds in a fight. BRING IT ON DYKE TYKES!

It also says I'm 52% geek. WOO! [gets 3 lightsabers and juggles them...badly]

It says I could name 29( ) colors in five munites. HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW CHOCOLATE WAS A COLOR?!

It also says I'm a 51% as effective human shield. ( O_O )

Congratulations, your dead body is worth $5240!

I'm screwed. I can only survive 31% percent in a zombe apocalybse.

Approximately 148,256 people died worldwide on April 27, 1992. I didn't know Magellan died on the 27th.

[Gelatine Cow]

Also, the site asks if you live near Pasig. YAY I LIVE NEAR IT!

You mean the ad for the dating site?
That just takes the location given to it by your IP address. For me it just said "Live near ?"
Those things are everywhere.

[JD-Rom]

Also, the site asks if you live near Pasig. YAY I LIVE NEAR IT!

You mean the ad for the dating site?
That just takes the location given to it by your IP address. For me it just said "Live near ?"
Those things are everywhere.

Oh.
Well that sucks. TRICKED AGAIN!