Question

State whether true or false:
Aquatic animals breathe at a slower rate than the terrestrial animals.

Answer 1

Aquatic animals may breathe air or extract oxygen that is dissolved in water through their specialized organs for breathing, gills and even directly from the skin whereas terrestrial animals inhale through their noses, mouths, skin also and carry oxygen to the lungs for the respiration process.

Complete answer:
Aquatic animals breathe gills or lungs, they take oxygen that is dissolved in the water. As the oxygen amount dissolved in water is low when we compare the amount of oxygen present in the atmosphere, due to this reason aquatic animals do not get enough oxygen for body functioning as terrestrial animals get at the same breathing rate.
So to extract more and more oxygen from the water the aquatic animals breathe at a faster rate as compare to the terrestrial animals so that they can meet the body demands by supplying enough oxygen to their lungs whereas terrestrial animals have a low breathing rate than the aquatic animals because oxygen amount present in the air is much higher that than of water, these animals get enough rate at their normal breathing rate for proper body functioning. So, aquatic animals breathe more in order to get more oxygen.

So the given statement is false because aquatic animals breathe at a faster rate than the terrestrial animals.

Note:
Let’s see an example to know about breathing rate of aquatic animals; Average breathing rate recorded in a healthy adult is 12-18 breaths per minute and in normal temperature of ${20^ \circ }C$ of water the average gill movement per minute is 66 but when water temperature is at ${30^ \circ }C$ goldfish breathe about 78 times in a minute.