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Heart - The hearts of other animals

Heart - The hearts of other animals: Encyclopedia II - Heart - The hearts of other animals

The heart of fish have only two chambers: one atrium and one ventricle. In fish, the system has only one circuit. The blood pumps through the gills and on to the the body tissues without returning to the heart. Amphibians and reptiles have a three-chambered heart: two atria and one ventricle. Blood from both the body and the lungs is pumped into the single ventricle, where unoxygenated and oxyge ...

Heart: Encyclopedia II - Heart - The hearts of other animals

Heart - The hearts of other animals

Main article: Circulatory system#Types of circulatory systems

Amphibians and reptiles have a three-chambered heart: two atria and one ventricle. Blood from both the body and the lungs is pumped into the single ventricle, where unoxygenated and oxygenated blood may mix. The blood from the single ventricle is then pumped to both the lungs and the body tissues, an type of double circulation.

Birds and mammals show complete separation of the heart into two pumps, for a total of four heart chambers; it is thought that the four-chambered heart of birds evolved independently of that of mammals.

Heart - Heartbeat

Smaller animals have faster heartbeats. This is evident within a species as well, as the young beat their hearts faster than the adults. See "Early development" above for information about the early human heart rates. The Gray Whale's heart beats 9 times per minute, Harbour Seal 10 when diving, 140 when on land, elephant 25, human 70, sparrow 500, shrew 600, and hummingbird 1,200 when hovering.

The earthworm has a series of multiple primitive hearts.

Heart - Food use

The hearts of cattle, sheep, pigs and certain fowl are consumed as food in many countries. They are counted among offal, but being a muscle, the taste of heart is much more like regular meat than that of other offal. It resembles venison in structure and taste.

Different species have different heart chambers. It can vary from one to four chambers (2 atria and 2 ventricle)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The hearts of other animals", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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