Summary
(1) Scanning electron microscopy and vascular casting were used to study the morphology and vascular anatomy of the fully developed internal gills of Litoria ewingii tadpoles. — (2) The four pairs of gills were located in two branchial baskets on either side of the heart. Each gill consisted of a branchial arch with gill tufts projecting ventrally and gill filters running dorsally. The gills bore a variable number of gill tufts in which a complex three-dimensional array of capillary loops, of varying lengths and diameters, was trailed in the path of the ventilatory current. — (3) The evidence presented in this paper suggests that the gill tufts have greater potential as gas exchangers than either the gill filters or skin. — (4) The study revealed structural and functional evidence for the existence of branchial shunts between afferent and efferent branchial arteries.
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McIndoe, R., Smith, D.G. Functional anatomy of the internal gills of the tadpole of Litoria ewingii (Anura, Hylidae). Zoomorphology 104, 280–291 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00312009
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00312009