page_title: Gill
section_title: Invertebrates
hierarchical_section_title: Gill / Invertebrates
caption_attribution_description: English: Anatomy gill part of a caribbean crab
context_page_description: A gill is a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracts dissolved oxygen from water and excretes carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist. The microscopic structure of a gill presents a large surface area to the external environment. Branchia is the zoologists' name for gills.
  With the exception of some aquatic insects, the filaments and lamellae contain blood or coelomic fluid, from which gases are exchanged through the thin walls. The blood carries oxygen to other parts of the body. Carbon dioxide passes from the blood through the thin gill tissue into the water. Gills or gill-like organs, located in different parts of the body, are found in various groups of aquatic animals, including mollusks, crustaceans, insects, fish, and amphibians. Semiterrestrial marine animals such as crabs and mudskippers have gill chambers in which they store water, enabling them to use the dissolved oxygen when they are on land.
context_section_description: Crustaceans, molluscs, and some aquatic insects have tufted gills or plate-like structures on the surfaces of their bodies. Gills of various types and designs, simple or more elaborate, have evolved independently in the past, even among the same class of animals. The segments of polychaete worms bear parapodia many of which carry gills. Sponges lack specialised respiratory structures, and the whole of the animal acts as a gill as water is drawn through its spongy structure.
  Aquatic arthropods usually have gills which are in most cases modified appendages. In some crustaceans these are exposed directly to the water, while in others, they are protected inside a gill chamber. Horseshoe crabs have book gills which are external flaps, each with many thin leaf-like membranes.
  Many marine invertebrates such as bivalve molluscs are filter feeders. A current of water is maintained through the gills for gas exchange, and food particles are filtered out at the same time. These may be trapped in mucus and moved to the mouth by the beating of cilia.
  Respiration in the echinoderms (such as starfish and sea urchins) is carried out using a very primitive version of gills called papulae. These thin protuberances on the surface of the body contain diverticula of the water vascular system.
  The gills of aquatic insects are tracheal, but the air tubes are sealed, commonly connected to thin external plates or tufted structures that allow diffusion. The oxygen in these tubes is renewed through the gills. In the larval dragonfly, the wall of the caudal end of the alimentary tract (rectum) is richly supplied with tracheae as a rectal gill, and water pumped into and out of the rectum provides oxygen to the closed tracheae.
caption: Caribbean hermit crabs have modified gills that allow them to live in humid conditions.
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