Re: insects - not! (OT)

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> This is also true for myriapods*, but not for spiders. Spiders have "book 
> lungs" which transfer oxygen from the air to the blood.

Yeah, I deliberately avoided mentioning arachnids for that reason.  However, 
book lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide mostly through diffusion, 
without pumping or active ventilation (in most species - there are 
exceptions).  Horseshoe crabs have them too.

> * Millipedes, centipedes, a few smaller groups, and probably arthropleurids 
> -- the things that reached a length of ~ 2 m in the Carboniferous and are 
> believed to have munched rotten wood or something, though I don't know why.

Because they were hungry?


;-)

Tim