Circulation Patterns

All vertebrates have some similarities in their circulatory systems but as vertebrate life changes from aquatic to terrestrial, the pattern of circulation becomes more complex. Fish and mammals represent two extremes in vertebrate circulation and Fig. 3.6 compares the two. The principal difference is in heart structure, from two chambered in fish to four chambered in mammals. The fish heart contains two main chambers in series the atrium or auricle and the ventricle. There are two subsidiary chambers (not shown in Figure) the sinus venosus which proceeds the atrium and conus arteriosis which comes after the heart.

These contain valves that prevent backwards flow of blood. Blood makes a single circuit from the heart to the gills where it is' oxygenated and then to the dorsal aorta to be distributed to the body from where it returns to the heart by the veins. Such a system has the advantage that all of the blood going to the body has already been oxygenated in the gills. However, there is a disadvantage i.e. the narrow gill capillaries slow down the blood flow resulting in a low blood pressure. This slows the rate of oxygen delivery to the cells and limits the metabolic rate that fish can attain.

                              Figure:  Circulatory system pattern in (a) fish and (b) mammals. Rust shows oxygenated blood