Carbon dioxide sensitivity of pulmonary receptors in the frog.

Pulmonary mechano-receptors have been found in the frog lung that are sensitive to CO2 concentrations in the lungs and airways comparable to the physiological levels recorded in frogs. These results support the suggestion that a pulmonary receptor with distinct mechano- and chemosensitive properties may represent the functional precursor of the more specialized pulmonary receptor types which have evolved in birds and mammals.