Amphibians ventilated their lungs by buccal pumping mechanism, which was first described in
1969 as a model for studying anurans respiration. Since amphibians do not have alveoli in their lungs, we
calculated to the toad Rhinella schneideri the equivalent lung ventilation from the equation VEFF =
(VLCO2·RT)/PLCO2. We analyzed buccal and pulmonary pressures, respiratory volumes, lung and buccal
ventilation, and ventilation frequency. [VE (12,1 ± 0,6ml BTPS.min-1
.kg-1
) ; VEB (164,3 ± 2,2ml BTPS.min-1
.kg-
1
) ; fR (5,8 ± 0,4min-1
); buccal frequencies (68,5 ± 1,6min-1
); Tidal volume(VT = 2.4 ml BTPS·kg-1
)]. The low
oxygen extraction (17,3 ± 2,8%) was used to explain the high frequency of pulmonary and buccal ventilation.
