Undeniable Fact: This may sound fishy...

Monday, October 02, 2006

In recorded history, only four people have been born with functional gills. Ironically none of them ever learned to swim, and three of the four died by drowning.

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posted by Dan Serena at 2:09 PM submit to reddit

2 Comments:

Blogger Edward Hansen said...

In aquatic organisms, gills are respiration organs for the extraction of oxygen from water and the excretion of carbon dioxide.

Now it is not possible for humans to get gills because we have lost the DNA string needed for that many millions of years ago.
Except if someone had a child with a fish.. wich is impossible because different species can't interbreed.

7:53 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

exactly, in newly born babies you can often still see a slight indentation about 1/4" in front of the ear lobes. The actual gills however usually close up around week 9 or 10, triggered by the same process that closes up wounds on your skin. When an embryo is positioned very tightly the gills (i.e. "wounds") fail to heal up because of the increased pressure.

In 99% of these cases this happens when the baby is not alone in the womb. Three of the mentioned cases were born as one of a triplet, and the fourth one had a twin brother.

It is believed that the gills don't enable a person to stay under water for several hours, since their oxygen intake isn't very efficient. Like for example the appendix it is an organ that is slowly disappearing. and the gills have to be stimulated (by breathing under water) continuously after being born to develop fully.

7:31 AM  

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