Abstract
ONE of the most remarkable structures in the lungs of Cetacea are the sphincters in the respiratory bronchioles. In a number of toothed whales (Odontoceti) the mucosa of these terminal bronchioles shows 8 to 40 consecutive ring-like folds with a circular layer of smooth muscle fibres acting as a sphincter. They may close the passage in the bronchiole completely. They divide the lumen in a number of small consecutive chambers. When the musculature relaxes the passage is re-opened by a system of radially directed elastic fibres, running from the muscular layer to the peripheral layer of cartilage. The sphincters have been described in the common porpoise (Phocaena phocaena (L.)), the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus (Mont.)), the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis L.), Prodelphinus caeruleo-albus Meyen, the white whale (Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas)) and in Berardius bairdii Stejneger1 4–9. Several authors showed that these sphincters are not present in baleen whales (Mystacoceti)2,6 7 9. These animals show a very well-developed mass of muscular fibres in the tips of the alveolar septa. Probably these fibres are able to close the alveoles completely.
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GOUDAPPEL, J., SLIJPER, E. Microscopic Structure of the Lungs of the Bottlenose Whale. Nature 182, 479 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/182479a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/182479a0
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