Why don't elephants get embolisms?

[ClevelandDiver]

Interesting Question.

Changing the subject slightly - why don't other marine mammals like whales and dolphins get DCI? They surface from extreme depth, yet seem fine all the time!

They do. It just doesn't effect them as severly as it does us.

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/whale_bends_041224.html

 

[Kim]

FisherDVM suggested a a great review article, you really need to look a the diagrams.

Good article. It explains it very well. (in even more specific detail than National Geographic did...although from the program the principles were very clear).

 

[victor]

Changing the subject slightly - why don't other marine mammals like whales and dolphins get DCI? They surface from extreme depth, yet seem fine all the time!

They do. It just doesn't effect them as severly as it does us.

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/whale_bends_041224.html

I find this surprising as the whale has such a tiny amount of nitrogen in its body during the dive.
A diver absorbs lungfuls of nitrogen at 3 atmospheres for as long as they are at 100 ft. Thus there is pleanty of nirtogen about to saturate the tissues. So we need to surface very slowly to allow all the extra nitrogen we have absorbed while under preasure to escape.

A whale has only one lungful. While it is a big lung it is at 1 atmosphere. There is no extra nitrogen to saturate the tissues.

As the whale did not get the bends at the surface the concentration of nitrogen throughout the body must be insufficient to cause bubbles.

At any depth below the surface a greater concentration of nitrogen is necessary for it to form bubles.

Therefore for a bubble to form below at > 1 atm the body must be concentrating the nitrogen in one place. Why?

As whales can be up to 100ft long does this mean that if the stand on their tails then surface they can get the bends without diving? What a bummer that would be.

 

[DandyDon]

Oh good grief...?!

BTW, this is the new theory of how the Loch Ness legend started - that there was a circus there, allowing the pachyderms to swim, and locals who had never seen an elephant saw one or more doing so.

Nessie...??

 

[Kim]

Oh good grief...?!

BTW, this is the new theory of how the Loch Ness legend started - that there was a circus there, allowing the pachyderms to swim, and locals who had never seen an elephant saw one or more doing so.

Nessie...??​

Good Lord Don!!!! Are you trying to hijack my thoughtful thread with tales of the Loch Ness Monster?????
Read the links - it's illuminating how much physiology needs to differ to handle even only a few feet of water pressure!

 

[diebeste]

Oh come on...be serious! How far do you think an elephant would get on an AL80? :no

The question I would like answered is: Would the elephant be able to pass DIR hose routing guidelines? And where would it be able to do a cave course? But the biggest problem that everyone seems to be missing, is that the elephant on SCUBA would have trouble equalizing, unless it could knot its trunk or something.

 

[Penguinboy]

The question I would like answered is: Would the elephant be able to pass DIR hose routing guidelines? And where would it be able to do a cave course? But the biggest problem that everyone seems to be missing, is that the elephant on SCUBA would have trouble equalizing, unless it could knot its trunk or something.

Lets try and get it into an XXXXXXXXXL BC first

Thanks for answering the question on whales! I had always wondered about that one.

 

[Blackwood]

But since it is dynamic and affected by viscosity and resistance, it will be different at the distal extremeties than at the heart.

Not to mention that the viscosity itself is a function of applied shear rate.

 

[ClevelandDiver]

I find this surprising as the whale has such a tiny amount of nitrogen in its body during the dive.
A diver absorbs lungfuls of nitrogen at 3 atmospheres for as long as they are at 100 ft. Thus there is pleanty of nirtogen about to saturate the tissues. So we need to surface very slowly to allow all the extra nitrogen we have absorbed while under preasure to escape.

A whale has only one lungful. While it is a big lung it is at 1 atmosphere. There is no extra nitrogen to saturate the tissues.

As the whale did not get the bends at the surface the concentration of nitrogen throughout the body must be insufficient to cause bubbles.

At any depth below the surface a greater concentration of nitrogen is necessary for it to form bubles.

Therefore for a bubble to form below at > 1 atm the body must be concentrating the nitrogen in one place. Why?

As whales can be up to 100ft long does this mean that if the stand on their tails then surface they can get the bends without diving? What a bummer that would be.

http://www.scuba-doc.com/breathhold.html

More reading on adverse effects of repetitive free dives to great depths.

 

[mello-yellow]

Which shows just how silly was the 19th (and early 20th) Century notion of "water-dwelling sauropods":

http://www.lindahall.org/events_exhib/exhibit/exhibits/dino/aug1957a.htm