A Misconception Concerning the Respiration of Amphibian Larvae : Lung and Skin Respiration by the Larvae of Anuran

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  • TANAKA Kuniaki
    Hakodate Campus, Faculty of Education, Hokkaido University of Education

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  • 両生類幼生の呼吸に関するミスコンセプション : オタマジャクシの肺呼吸と皮膚呼吸について
  • リョウセイルイヨウセイ ノ コキュウ ニ カンスル ミスコンセプション オタマジャクシ ノ ハイ コキュウ ト ヒフ コキュウ ニ ツイテ

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Abstract

<p>The newest edition of lower secondary science textbooks in Japan describes the respiration of amphibians by pointing out that tadpoles respire by gills and frogs by lungs. However, recent experimental research has shown that some species of anuran larvae other than Bufonoid begin to use their lungs before metamorphosis, and lung respiration seems to be an accessory behavior to survive in anaerobic water and a rudimentary behavior reflecting the evolution of lung in the ancestor of amphibian. Moreover, the skin has the most important role in gas exchange in early aquatic larvae. Obviously, the statement that tadpoles respire by gills is a misconception. Lung respiration by anuran larvae was discovered in 1931 in Europe, and the beginning of respiration by lungs and the skin prior to metamorphosis and their functional partition in gas exchange were measured in bullfrogs in 1982. Nevertheless, the exact description of the larval respiration of anuran is seldom found in Japanese or foreign science textbooks. The misconception that tadpoles respire by gills in water and frogs by lungs in air seems to have originated in misinformation from science textbooks and in a deductive guess from the fact that most terrestrial vertebrates respire by lungs while aquatics respire by gills. To dispel this misconception, we must correct educational materials and create special teaching plans including physiological experiments on the respiration of tadpoles. </p>

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