Correlations between structure and function in the design of the bat lung: a morphometric study ...

• Main Authors: Maina, J. N., King, A. S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 1984
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Pipistrellus pipistrellus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13474028; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13474028

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) ABSTRACT The lungs of five species of bat Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Miniopterus minor (Peters), Tadarida mops (De Blainville), Cynopterus brachyotis (Muller) and Cheiromeles torquatus (Horstield) have been analysed by morphometric techniques. The mean body weight (W) ranged from 5 g in Pipistrellus pipistrellus to 173g in Cheiromeles torquatus; the lung volume (VL) ranged from 0·3 cm3 in Pipistrellus to 10 cm3 in Cheiromeles. The volume densities or the main components of the bat lung, namely the parenchyma [Vv(p,L)] (the gas exchange region) and the nonparenchyma [Vv(np,L)], were closely similar, the Vv(p,L) constituting a mean value of 84·2% and the Vv(np,L) 15·8% in the five species. The VL, the surface area of the blood-gas (tissue) barrier (St), the pulmonary capillary blood volume (Vc), and the total morphometric pulmonary diffusing capacity were all strongly correlated with body weight. The harmonic mean thickness of the blood-gas (tissue) barrier ...