The right ventricle then sends the blood to the lungs to help replenish oxygen stores. (smallanimalchanel.com)
She calculated that the escape dives her team monitored in narwhals required 97 percent of the animal's oxygen supply and often exceeded its aerobic dive limit (meaning depletion of oxygen stores in the muscles, lungs, and blood, followed by anaerobic metabolism). (scienceandtechnologyresearchnews.com)
The authors calculated that the frantic getaway, combined with what they called «cardiac freeze,» severely and rapidly depletes the narwhals» available oxygen in their lungs, blood and muscles — using 97 percent of the creatures» oxygen stores compared with 52 percent on normal dives of similar depth and duration. (sciencenews.org)