Much coordination between musculature is necessary for both respiration and breathing. They are highly elastic. Color at birth is white to pinkish white. With age they darken because of contamination from the atmosphere. Apex of each lung points upward and fits into a space bounded by upper ribs, sternum and vertebrae.
Base of lungs are concave and ride on the diaphragm.
Lying in it are heart, large vessels, esophagus, some nerves, and part of the network of branching tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs. Lungs have cardiac impression where heart sits between the lungs. In center of the mediastinal surface is area called the hilum or root of the lung. It admits vascular and respiratory structures. Convex surface of lung next to ribs called costal surface.