Ductus Arteriosus in Pilot Whales

Abstract

The ductus arteriosus (DA), connecting the aorta with the pulmonary artery in the fetus, which normally closes up just after birth in terrestrial mammals, has been claimed not to close, but to remain open in normal, adult cetaceans, just as in the adult lungfish. We have examined the hearts from two Pilot Whales. In those we found no persisting Da, but an almost totally obliterated lumen. Blood flow through the ductus of these two whales could be excluded. Instead of an anatomical shunt mammals may use a functional pulmonary shunt. To the extent diving mammals can empty their alveoli for air at depth through reinforced bronchioli, and their very compliant thorax, they block alveolar gas exchange, and thus avoid decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis and pulmonary squeeze. © 1988, PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN. All rights reserved.