News in Brief Life

Iguanas’ one-way airflow undermines usual view of lung evolution

Not just active birds but sedentary lizards with simple lungs have unusual breathing dynamics

iguana

FANCY BREATH  A green iguana’s lungs manage sophisticated one-way air flow with deceptively simple structures.

Christian Mehlführer/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

The green iguana, which does not fly or do anything more athletic than an occasional sprint, has the simplest lungs yet found to produce a version of birds’ high-performance one-way airflow.