Bajau Diver (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

Bajau Diver

Caption

The Bajau can spend as much as 60 percent of their day doing repeated dives, sometimes as deep as 200 feet, to catch fish, octopus and sea cucumbers. Over the centuries, they appear to have adapted to deep diving by developing larger spleens that hold more oxygenated blood to sustain them during these dives. This could be due to a genetic mutation that boost thyroid hormone levels, which have been linked to larger spleens in mice.

Credit

Melissa Ilardo

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