
The Best Of 5 Live Science 2022
5 Live Science Podcast
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Can Snakes Breathe When They're Constricting?
Snakes breathe with their ribcage. We as mammals are actually kind of special and that we also use a diaphragm, but snakes and lizards only use their ribcages. They rotate the ribs, they make their chest bigger, which then causes a pressure change,. Then causing air to rush into their lungs. And so how did you investigate what the snakes were doing then? So we originally were just doing some observational work. You're just watching snakes constrict and feed and we're kind of noticing that they were breathing with a different part of their body when they were constricting or feeding relative to when they were just kind of hanging out in the cage at rest
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