ABSTRACT
The so-called dive response is a series of neurally mediated physiological adaptations, the primary purpose of which is to conserve endogenous oxygen stores when an animal is separated from its oxygen supply while diving. The dive response has largely been studied in marine mammals, reptiles (e.g., Gaunt and Gans 1969), and aquatic birds, but the response is shared by all mammalian species tested to date (e.g., for comparison to dogs and humans, see Elsner et al. 1966). The response may extend to all terrestrial vertebrates to some degree, though its occurrence may not be as intense or as abrupt as is observed in marine mammals upon submergence. Indeed, Elsner (1970) once characterized the dive response of marine mammals as a “well-developed instance of a very general asphyxia defense mechanism common to all vertebrates from fish to man.”
