• scarabic@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I learned about this from an awesome Hank Green video about how life evolved to move out of the ocean onto land. Developing air breathing lungs was one step in that, and it appears that lungs developed from stomachs. Any soft tissue with a lot of blood flowing through it close to the surface can absorb some oxygen. Some fish began to develops such sacs and use them to gulp and capture airborne oxygen. And he notes that there are some surgeries today where they may “aspirate the patient’s colon” with oxygen to keep their blood oxygen up when conventional breathing must be supplemented. Breathing through your ass is in fact a thing.