This conclusion was made by scientists from Japan and the United States. They found that rodents and pigs are able to use their intestines for respiration, similar to some marine organisms. Such developments in a hospital setting might even help people who have partially lost the ability to breathe with their lungs.

Mammals were able to breathe through their intestines

This conclusion was made by scientists from Japan and the United States. They found that rodents and pigs are able to use their intestines for respiration, similar to some marine organisms. Such developments in a hospital setting might even help people who have partially lost the ability to breathe with their lungs.

Mammals were able to breathe through their intestines / ©Getty images

The work was published in the journal Med. It is known that some aquatic organisms – sea cucumbers, freshwater chars and catfish – have developed intestinal respiration mechanisms to survive in conditions of lack of oxygen. But scientists did not know for sure about such abilities in mammals until a new study by specialists from the Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan) and the Cincinnati Hospital Medical Center (USA).

They were able to show that in an emergency, rats, mice and pigs can breathe through their intestines. True, such a breathing system is rather inefficient and serves only as a small support for an organism dying from lack of oxygen, but for some time it is still able to hold out due to it.

The sequenced genome of the rocktooth showed that these animals lived during the time of the dinosaurs, but have survived to this day.