Author: Aimee Cunningham / Source: Science News
In turquoise waters off the Indonesian coast, evolutionary geneticist Melissa Ilardo watched as the diver, wearing handmade, wooden goggles, spotted a giant clam meters below and darted down to retrieve it.
The diver was one of the Bajau people of Southeast Asia, known for holding their breath for long periods while spearing fish and gathering other seafood. During a typical day, these “sea nomads” spend up to five hours in total underwater. And Ilardo had heard that some can hold their breath for as long as 13 minutes during a dive. Their comfort with breath-hold diving may be due to having unusually large spleens, which provides a bigger supply of oxygenated red blood cells,…
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