The Circulatory System

• The circulatory system moves nutrients, gases,

and wastes to and from cells
• Single-celled organisms obtain oxygen and
nutrients directly across the surface of the cell
• Multi-cellular organisms require methods for
transporting materials to and from cells which
are far removed from the external
environment
 Invertebrate Circulatory Systems
• Sponges and most Cnidarians use water from the
environment as a circulatory fluid
• Pseudocoelomate invertebrates (e.g.,
roundworms) use the fluids of the body cavity for
circulation (=gastrovascular cavity)
• Larger animals have tissues that are several cells
thick, such that many cells are too far away from
the body surface or digestive cavity to exchange
materials with the environment
• In Cnidarians, respiration occurs via diffusion
directly through their tissues
• A gastrovascular cavity is used for digestion and
transport
Invertebrate Circulatory Systems
 Invertebrate Circulatory Systems
• Open circulatory system – No distinction between
blood and the interstitial fluid; hemolymph
– Most Molluscs and Arthropods
– A tubular muscle, or heart, pumps hemolymph through a
network of channels and body cavities, before draining
back to the central cavity
– Hemolymph directly
bathes the internal
organs
 The Circulatory System
• Closed circulatory system – The circulating
fluid, or blood, is enclosed within blood
vessels that transport it away from – and back
to – the heart
– All vertebrates, cephalopod molluscs, and
annelids
– Consists of
heart, blood
vessels and
blood
 Vertebrate Circulatory Systems
• Surface area – as the physiological complexity
of animals increased, so too did the need for
more surface area to transport and exchange
nutrients and oxygen (and remove CO2 and
metabolic wastes)
• Adaptations have allowed the development of
large body size and locomotion
 Vertebrate Circulatory Systems

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/ocean/images/03_oceanlife/features/06_whales/whale.jpg

Check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd_w3biT3TU

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bar-headed_Goose_-_St_James%27s_Park,_London_-_Nov_2006.jpg
 Vertebrate Circulatory Systems
• Fish evolved a 2-chambered heart to increase
efficiency of gas exchange in gills

First to contract 2.

1. 3. 4.
 Vertebrate Circulatory Systems
• The evolution of lungs in amphibians involved a
major change in the pattern of circulation – a second
pumping circuit
• After blood is pumped from the heart through
pulmonary arteries to the lungs, it is returned to the
heart via pulmonary veins
– Double circulation – gives boost to speed/pressure at
which blood is transported to the rest of the body
– Pulmonary circulation moves blood between the heart
and lungs; Systemic circulation moves blood between the
heart and the rest of the body
 Heart

1b. 2a.

1. Deoxygenated
blood from body is
pumped through
the heart and to
the lungs 1a. 2b.
2. Oxygenated blood
is returned to
heart to be
pumped to rest of
the body
 Vertebrate Circulatory Systems
• Amphibians and most reptiles have a 3-
chambered heart
– 2 atria and 1 ventricle
– Some mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated
blood
• Right atrium receives deoxygenated blood from the
systemic circulation, and the left atrium receives
oxygenated blood (pulmonary) from the lungs – no
mixing in the atria
• Separation of pulmonary and systemic incomplete in
ventricle
 Amphibian and Reptilian Circulation
• Amphibians obtain additional oxygen via
diffusion through their (moist) skin
• Reptiles have a septum that partially
subdivides the ventricle
– Separation is complete in Crocodilians (septum
divides ventricle into 2 separate ventricles; a 4-
chambered heart)
– Further reduces mixing of blood in the heart
– Atria receive blood returning to the heart
– Ventricles pump blood out of the heart
 Mammalian and Avian (and
Crocodilian) Circulatory Systems
• Oxygenated and deoxygenated blood does not
mix; completely separated
– 4-chambered heart: 2 atria, 2 ventricles
– Right atrium receives deoxygenated blood from the
body and delivers it to the right ventricle which
pumps it to the lungs (pulmonary); the left atrium
receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and
delivers it to the left ventricle, which pumps it to
the rest of the body (systemic)
pulmonary systemic
RA  RV  LUNGS  LA  LV  REST OF BODY
 1b.
2a.

1a.
2b.

1. Deoxygenated blood from body is pumped through the heart and to lungs
2. Oxygenated blood is returned to heart to be pumped to rest of the body
 Mammalian and Avian (and
Crocodilian) Circulatory Systems
• The sinus venosus is present, but reduced, in
amphibians and (further reduced) in reptiles
• In mammals and birds, the sinus venosus is
present only as a remnant of tissue in the wall
of the right atrium = sinoatrial (SA) node
– Pacemaker, site where the impulses that initiate
the heartbeat originate