University of Utah biologist Colleen G. Farmer said the blood diversion sharply increases the production of gastric acid to digest meals that are equivalent to a 130 pound woman eating a 30 pound hamburger.

Farmer said members of the crocodilian order, to which the American alligator belongs, like to find a warm place to lie down while they digest their meal. During this period, crocodilians divert blood through a special vessel, called the left aorta, which bypasses the lung. This sends carbon dioxide-rich blood straight to the stomach where it helps form gastric acid and bicarbonate, enabling the crocodilians to secrete gastric acid at a rate that is approximately 10 times the highest rates measured in mammals, the university said Monday in a release.

The findings will be published in the March/April 2008 issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.