What organisms have 3 chambered hearts?

Answer 1

hearts have 2 types of chambers: atria and ventricles. Atria are where blood enters the heart and ventricles pump the blood out of the heart. Hearts take in oxygen poor blood, pump it through the pulmonary circuit (lungs/gills) where it gets oxygenated, and then they pump it out to the rest of the body. There are many many small veins (take blood to the heart) and arteries (carry it away) which connect the heart to the pulmonary circuit and keep it all running right. Blood pressure has to be carefully balanced in all tubes so that flow pressure is maintained and blood keeps moving, but not so fast as to explode certain areas or capillaries. One might say this careful and complex hydrostatic wiring might be easily selectable in an evolutionary scenario, but there's no getting around the fact that there's a very complicated and highly balanced network of biological fluid mechanics going on inside a heart than most artificial heart engineers probably care to think about.

Given all this, there are 3 basic ways to make a heart found in animals: a 2 chambered heart, a 3 chambered heart, and a 4 chambered heart. Fish have 2 chambers, one atrium and one ventricle. Amphibians and reptiles have 3 chambers: 2 atria and a ventricle. Crocodiles are the one reptilian exception, as they have 4 chambers (2 atria, 2 ventricles). Birds and mammals have 4 chambers (2 atria and 2 ventricles).

Differences between the hearts:

The fish heart (figure 1a) is much different than the amphibian/reptile/bird/mammal heart (figures 1b and c). Hearts are very complex--they're not just a bunch of random arteries and veins connecting tissue. Fish hearts simply draw in deoxygenated blood in a single atrium, and pump it out through a ventricle. This system is termed "single circulation", as blood enters the heart, gets pumped through the gills and out to the body, Blood pressure is low for oxygenated blood leaving the gills.

3 and 4 chambered hearts have a pulmonary circuit (pathways taking blood from heart to lung and back to heart) that is very complex and must be set up such that blood can travel from the heart to become oxygenated in the lungs and then be properly pumped back the heart and out to the body. The 3 (and 4) chambered heart has "double circulation" (figure 1b and c) and is quite different from "single circulation" (figure 1a) of fishes.

"Double circulation" has an interior circuit within the heart--blood enters the heart, leaves the heart and gets oxygenated, enters the heart again, and then gets pumped out to the body. Because "Double circulation" allows oxygenated blood to be pumped back into the heart before going out to the body, it pumps blood with much more pressure and much more vigorously than "single circulation".

Answer 2

A Three-chambered heart is a congenital abnormality in which there may be a single atrium with two ventricles or a single ventricle with two atria. Rudimentary parts of the atrial and ventricular septa may be present but are incompetent to prevent a virtual single chamber in either case.

Amphibians and most reptiles have a heart with three chambers-two atria and a single ventricle. These animals also have separate circuits of blood vessels for oxygenating blood and delivering it to the body. De-oxygenated blood returning from the body empties into the right atrium. From there, blood is conducted to the ventricle and is then pumped to the lungs. After picking up oxygen and getting rid of carbon dioxide in the lungs, blood returns to the heart and empties into the left atrium. The blood then enters the ventricle a second time and is pumped out to the body. The second trip through the heart keeps blood pressure strong and blood flow rapid as blood is pumped to the tissues, helping the blood deliver oxygen more efficiently.

Answer 3

The blue whale's heart weighs about a ton. See the site in the Related Links for more information,

Answer 4

Mammals and birds have four chambers in their heart.

Answer 5

most of the fishes

Answer 6

all endotherms seem to share a 4 chambered heart.

Answer 7

Chev Chelios

Answer 8

Hummingbird!

Answer 9

squids do, as well as anthropods

Answer 10

All amphibians and some types of reptiles