How whales eat in water and do not choke?
In fact, a person can also open the mouth under water, but only near the surface; At great depth it is dangerous due to high pressure. When we swallow, the epiglotter is a thin elastic cartilage – closes the path in the trachea. Therefore, to choke, opening the mouth under water, a person cannot. It will only happen if he tries to breathe. And with the loss of control over yourself due to panic or lack of oxygen, it will definitely happen – reflex.
Man is not adapted for habitat in water for two reasons. First, the paths of digestive and respiratory systems have not been separated from it as good as the same whales. Secondly, the development of speech demanded another structure of the larynx.
Above animals that are permanent in water – fish and cetaceans – Evolution worked differently. Catto-shaped, the special structure of the nastestrian and the sneak-shaped cartilage led to the fact that the esophagus and airways are not communicated to each other. Consequently, whale can freely open the mouth under water and do not choke. The same structure of the pharynx is characteristic of all relatives of whales – dolphins and coushlots, and other aqueous mammals are characterized by the separation of the respiratory and digestive path. Among them, for example, laston-trees – seals and sea seals.
However, fewer problems with swallowing under water in bone fish (sturgeon, salmon, crucible, perch, lump and others. – only more than 20,000 species). The structure of their gills allows water with dissolved oxygen to penetrate through the gill covers to gill petals, where gas exchange occurs, and then water is removed from the body. In cartilage fish, for example, sharks and rods, the gills are slots of pharynx, outgoing to breathe. Therefore, they constantly swallow water and throw it through gill gaps. And if bone fish can hold the mouth closed for a long time, the cartilage even food in the mouth cannot be held – forced to tear off and swallow a piece as quickly as possible. But if the fish or aqueous mammal has no anomalies in the structure of the pharynx, it will never choose.
