Natures wonders: Diving mammals (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, July 11, 2013, 20:18 (4151 days ago) @ David Turell

High O2 concentrations in myglobin (muscle hemoglobin-like molecule) allows this:-http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/2013/07/09/how-animals-evolved-to-live-in-low-oxygen-locales/-"The key is the famous oxygen-storing protein myoglobin. Myoglobin makes human muscles look red, and is so bountiful in the muscles of diving mammals that they look black. But at such high concentrations, myoglobin ought to clump together and render itself useless.
 
Mirceta's team studied the charges on myoglobin in marine mammals and found that it was so highly positively charged that it was repelled by itself, allowing more of it to be safely packed into smaller volumes. The researchers found a significant correlation between how long an animals dives for and how positively charged its myoglobin is—thus a sperm whale has a much higher positive charge on its myoglobin than a human.
 
In the case of the sperm whale, that density of myoglobin paired with large body size means the whale can stay submerged for nearly two hours. Extreme human athletes everywhere gnash their teeth"