bio

Operculum

The pair of breathing slits running down the flanks of most large Pandoran animals, feeding air straight to the lungs while bypassing the head entirely. The arrangement allows extremely efficient gas exchange in Pandora's dense atmosphere - in flyers like the banshee it works as a one-way pump much like a bird's respiratory system. But because there is no passage to warm incoming air, operculum-breathers are highly vulnerable to cold. The Na'vi are the sole exception: they have no opercula and breathe through a nose.