Circulatory system


Circulatory system, system that transports nutrients, respiratory gases, and metabolic products throughout a living organism, permitting integration among the various tissues. The process of circulation includes the intake of metabolic materials, the conveyance of these materials throughout the organism, and the return of harmful by-products to the environment.

  • Human circulatory system.
    Human circulatory system.
    Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Invertebrate animals have a great variety of liquids, cells, and modes of circulation, though many invertebrates have what is called an open system, in which fluid passes more or less freely throughout the tissues or defined areas of tissue. All vertebrates, however, have a closed system—that is, their circulatory system transmits fluid through an intricate network of vessels. This system contains two fluids, blood and lymph, and functions by means of two interacting modes of circulation, the cardiovascular system and the lymphatic system; both the fluid components and the vessels through which they flow reach their greatest elaboration and specialization in the mammalian systems and, particularly, in the human body.

A full treatment of human blood and its various components can be found in the article human blood. A discussion of how the systems of circulation, respiration, and metabolism work together within an animal organism is found in the article respiration.

Main features of circulatory systems

General features of circulation

All living organisms take in molecules from their environments, use them to support the metabolism of their own substance, and release by-products back into the environment. The internal environment differs more or less greatly from the external environment, depending on the species. It is normally maintained at constant conditions by the organism so that it is subject to relatively minor fluctuations. In individual cells, either as independent organisms or as parts of the tissues of multicellular animals, molecules are taken in either by their direct diffusion through the cell wall or by the formation by the surface membrane of vacuoles that carry some of the environmental fluid containing dissolved molecules. Within the cell, cyclosis (streaming of the fluid cytoplasm) distributes the metabolic products.

    Parts of the human circulatory system that highlight arterial supply and venous drainage of the …
    Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Molecules are normally conveyed between cells and throughout the body of multicellular organisms in a circulatory fluid, called blood, through special channels, called blood vessels, by some form of pump, which, if restricted in position, is usually called a heart. In vertebrates blood and lymph (the circulating fluids) have an essential role in maintaining homeostasis (the constancy of the internal environment) by distributing substances to parts of the body when required and by removing others from areas in which their accumulation would be harmful.

  • The heart and the blood vessels together constitute the cardiovascular system. Blood circulates within this network in two separate loops. The pulmonary bloodstream runs to and from the lungs, and the systemic bloodstream runs to and from other parts of the body.
    The heart and blood vessels constitute the cardiovascular system, which circulates blood throughout …

One phylum, Cnidaria (Coelenterata)—which includes sea anemones, jellyfish, and corals—has a diploblastic level of organization (i.e., its members have two layers of cells). The outer layer, called the ectoderm, and the inner layer, called the endoderm, are separated by an amorphous, acellular layer called the mesoglea; for these animals, bathing both cellular surfaces with environmental fluid is sufficient to supply their metabolic needs. All other major eumetazoan phyla (i.e., those with defined tissues and organs) are triploblastic (i.e., their members have three layers of cells), with the third cellular layer, called the mesoderm, developing between the endoderm and ectoderm. At its simplest, the mesoderm provides a network of packing cells around the animal’s organs; this is probably best exhibited in the phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms).

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Nematoda, Rotifera, and a number of other smaller eumetazoan classes and phyla have a fluid-filled cavity, called the pseudocoelom, that arises from an embryonic cavity and contains the internal organs free within it. All other eumetazoans have a body cavity, the coelom, which originates as a cavity in the embryonic mesoderm. Mesoderm lines the coelom and forms the peritoneum, which also surrounds and supports the internal organs. While this increase in complexity allows for increase in animal size, it has certain problems. As the distances from metabolizing cells to the source of metabolites (molecules to be metabolized) increases, a means of distribution around the body is necessary for all but the smallest coelomates.

Many invertebrate animals are aquatic and the problem of supplying fluid is not critical. For terrestrial organisms, however, the fluid reaching the tissues comes from water that has been drunk, absorbed in the alimentary canal, and passed to the bloodstream. Fluid may leave the blood, usually with food and other organic molecules in solution, and pass to the tissues, from which it returns in the form of lymph. Especially in the vertebrates, lymph passes through special pathways, called lymphatic channels, to provide the lymphatic circulation.

In many invertebrates, however, the circulating fluid is not confined to distinct vessels, and it more or less freely bathes the organs directly. The functions of both circulating and tissue fluid are thus combined in the fluid, often known as hemolymph. The possession of a blood supply and coelom, however, does not exclude the circulation of environmental water through the body. Members of the phylum Echinodermata (starfishes and sea urchins, for example) have a complex water vascular system used mainly for locomotion.

An internal circulatory system transports essential gases and nutrients around the body of an organism, removes unwanted products of metabolism from the tissues, and carries these products to specialized excretory organs, if present. Although a few invertebrate animals circulate external water through their bodies for respiration, and, in the case of cnidarians, nutrition, most species circulate an internal fluid, called blood.

There may also be external circulation that sets up currents in the environmental fluid to carry it over respiratory surfaces and, especially in the case of sedentary animals, to carry particulate food that is strained out and passed to the alimentary canal. Additionally, the circulatory system may assist the organism in movement; for example, protoplasmic streaming in amoeboid protozoans circulates nutrients and provides pseudopodal locomotion. The hydrostatic pressure built up in the circulatory systems of many invertebrates is used for a range of whole-body and individual-organ movement.

Body fluids

The fluid compartments of animals consist of intracellular and extracellular components. The intracellular component includes the body cells and, where present, the blood cells, while the extracellular component includes the tissue fluid, coelomic fluid, and blood plasma. In all cases the major constituent is water derived from the environment. The composition of the fluid varies markedly depending on its source and is regulated more or less precisely by homeostasis.

Blood and coelomic fluid are often physically separated by the blood-vessel walls; where a hemocoel (a blood-containing body cavity) exists, however, blood rather than coelomic fluid occupies the cavity. The composition of blood may vary from what is little more than the environmental water containing small amounts of dissolved nutrients and gases to the highly complex tissue containing many cells of different types found in mammals.

Lymph essentially consists of blood plasma that has left the blood vessels and has passed through the tissues. It is generally considered to have a separate identity when it is returned to the bloodstream through a series of vessels independent of the blood vessels and the coelomic space. Coelomic fluid itself may circulate in the body cavity. In most cases this circulation has an apparently random nature, mainly because of movements of the body and organs. In some phyla, however, the coelomic fluid has a more important role in internal distribution and is circulated by ciliary tracts.

Fluid compartments

Blood is circulated through vessels of the blood vascular system. Blood is moved through this system by some form of pump. The simplest pump, or heart, may be no more than a vessel along which a wave of contraction passes to propel the blood. This simple, tubular heart is adequate where low blood pressure and relatively slow circulation rates are sufficient to supply the animal’s metabolic requirements, but it is inadequate in larger, more active, and more demanding species. In the latter animals, the heart is usually a specialized, chambered, muscular pump that receives blood under low pressure and returns it under higher pressure to the circulation. Where the flow of blood is in one direction, as is normally the case, valves in the form of flaps of tissue prevent backflow.

A characteristic feature of hearts is that they pulsate throughout life and any prolonged cessation of heartbeat is fatal. Contractions of the heart muscle may be initiated in one of two ways. In the first, the heart muscle may have an intrinsic contractile property that is independent of the nervous system. This myogenic contraction is found in all vertebrates and some invertebrates. In the second, the heart is stimulated by nerve impulses from outside the heart muscle. The hearts of other invertebrates exhibit this neurogenic contraction.

Chambered hearts, as found in vertebrates and some larger invertebrates, consist of a series of interconnected muscular compartments separated by valves. The first chamber, the auricle, acts as a reservoir to receive the blood that then passes to the second and main pumping chamber, the ventricle. Expansion of a chamber is known as diastole and contraction as systole. As one chamber undergoes systole the other undergoes diastole, thus forcing the blood forward. The series of events during which blood is passed through the heart is known as the cardiac cycle.

Contraction of the ventricle forces the blood into the vessels under pressure, known as the blood pressure. As contraction continues in the ventricle, the rising pressure is sufficient to open the valves that had been closed because of attempted reverse blood flow during the previous cycle. At this point the ventricular pressure transmits a high-speed wave, the pulse, through the blood of the arterial system. The volume of blood pumped at each contraction of the ventricle is known as the stroke volume, and the output is usually dependent on the animal’s activity.

After leaving the heart, the blood passes through a series of branching vessels of steadily decreasing diameter. The smallest branches, only a few micrometres (there are about 25,000 micrometres in one inch) in diameter, are the capillaries, which have thin walls through which the fluid part of the blood may pass to bathe the tissue cells. The capillaries also pick up metabolic end products and carry them into larger collecting vessels that eventually return the blood to the heart. In vertebrates there are structural differences between the muscularly walled arteries, which carry the blood under high pressure from the heart, and the thinner walled veins, which return it at much reduced pressure. Although such structural differences are less apparent in invertebrates, the terms artery and vein are used for vessels that carry blood from and to the heart, respectively.

The closed circulatory system found in vertebrates is not universal; a number of invertebrate phyla have an “open” system. In the latter animals, the blood leaving the heart passes into a series of open spaces, called sinuses, where it bathes internal organs directly. Such a body cavity is called a hemocoel, a term that reflects the amalgamation of the blood system and the coelom.

Invertebrate circulatory systems

Basic physicochemical considerations

To maintain optimum metabolism, all living cells require a suitable environment, which must be maintained within relatively narrow limits. An appropriate gas phase (i.e., suitable levels of oxygen and other gases), an adequate and suitable nutrient supply, and a means of disposal of unwanted products are all essential.

Direct diffusion through the body surface supplies the necessary gases and nutrients for small organisms, but even some single-celled protozoa have a rudimentary circulatory system. Cyclosis in many ciliates carries food vacuoles—which form at the forward end of the gullet (cytopharynx)—on a more or less fixed route around the cell, while digestion occurs to a fixed point of discharge.

For most animal cells, the supply of oxygen is largely independent of the animal and therefore is a limiting factor in its metabolism and ultimately in its structure and distribution. The nutrient supply to the tissues, however, is controlled by the animal itself, and, because both major catabolic end products of metabolism—ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2)—are more soluble than oxygen (O2) in water and the aqueous phase of the body fluids, they tend not to limit metabolic rates. The diffusion rate of CO2 is less than that of O2, but its solubility is 30 times that of oxygen. This means that the amount of CO2 diffusing is 26 times as high as for oxygen at the same temperature and pressure.

The oxygen available to a cell depends on the concentration of oxygen in the external environment and the efficiency with which it is transported to the tissues. Dry air at atmospheric pressure contains about 21 percent oxygen, the percentage of which decreases with increasing altitude. Well-aerated water has the same percentage of oxygen as the surrounding air; however, the amount of dissolved oxygen is governed by temperature and the presence of other solutes. For example, seawater contains 20 percent less oxygen than fresh water under the same conditions.

The rate of diffusion depends on the shape and size of the diffusing molecule, the medium through which it diffuses, the concentration gradient, and the temperature. These physicochemical constraints imposed by gaseous diffusion have a relationship with animal respiration. Investigations have suggested that a spherical organism larger than 0.5 millimetre (0.02 inch) radius would not obtain enough oxygen for the given metabolic rate, and so a supplementary transport mechanism would be required. Many invertebrates are small, with direct diffusion distances of less than 0.5 millimetre. Considerably larger species, however, still survive without an internal circulatory system.

Animals without independent vascular systems

A sphere represents the smallest possible ratio of surface area to volume; modifications in architecture, reduction of metabolic rate, or both may be exploited to allow size increase. Sponges overcome the problem of oxygen supply and increase the chance of food capture by passing water through their many pores using ciliary action. The level of organization of sponges is that of a coordinated aggregation of largely independent cells with poorly defined tissues and no organ systems. The whole animal has a relatively massive surface area for gaseous exchange, and all cells are in direct contact with the passing water current.

Among the eumetazoan (multicellular) animals the cnidarians (sea anemones, corals, and jellyfish) are diploblastic, the inner endoderm and outer ectoderm being separated by an acellular mesoglea. Sea anemones and corals may also grow to considerable size and exhibit complex external structure that, again, has the effect of increasing surface area. Their fundamentally simple structure—with a gastrovascular cavity continuous with the external environmental water—allows both the endodermal and ectodermal cells of the body wall access to aerated water, permitting direct diffusion.

This arrangement is found in a number of other invertebrates, such as Ctenophora (comb jellies), and is exploited further by jellyfish, which also show a rudimentary internal circulatory system. The thick, largely acellular, gelatinous bell of a large jellyfish may attain a diameter of 40 centimetres (16 inches) or more. The gastrovascular cavity is modified to form a series of water-filled canals that ramify through the bell and extend from the central gastric pouches to a circular canal that follows the periphery of the umbrella. Ciliary activity within the canals slowly passes food particles and water, taken in through the mouth, from the gastric pouches (where digestion is initiated) to other parts of the body. Ciliary activity is a relatively inefficient means of translocating fluids, and it may take up to half an hour to complete a circulatory cycle through even a small species. To compensate for the inefficiency of the circulation, the metabolic rate of the jellyfish is low, and organic matter makes up only a small proportion of the total body constituents. The central mass of the umbrella may be a considerable distance from either the exumbrella surface or the canal system, and, while it contains some wandering amoeboid cells, its largely acellular nature means that its metabolic requirements are small.

Vascular systems

While ciliary respiratory currents are sufficient to supply the requirements of animals with simple epithelial tissues and low metabolic rates, most species whose bodies contain a number of organ systems require a more efficient circulatory system. Many invertebrates and all vertebrates have a closed vascular system in which the circulatory fluid is totally confined within a series of vessels consisting of arteries, veins, and fine linking capillaries. Insects, most crustaceans, and many mollusks, however, have an open system in which the circulating fluid passes somewhat freely among the tissues before being collected and recirculated.

The distinction between open and closed circulatory systems may not be as great as was once thought; some crustaceans have vessels with dimensions similar to those of vertebrate capillaries before opening into tissue sinuses. The circulatory fluid in open systems is strictly hemolymph, but the term “blood” is commonly used to denote the transporting medium in both open and closed systems. Compared with closed systems, open circulatory systems generally work at lower pressures, and the rate of fluid return to the heart is slower. Blood distribution to individual organs is not regulated easily, and the open system is not as well-adapted for rapid response to change.


The primary body cavity (coelom) of triploblastic multicellular organisms arises from the central mesoderm, which emerges from between the endoderm and ectoderm during embryonic development. The fluid of the coelom containing free mesodermal cells constitutes the blood and lymph. The composition of blood varies between different organisms and within one organism at different stages during its circulation. Essentially, however, the blood consists of an aqueous plasma containing sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, and sulfate ions; some trace elements; a number of amino acids; and possibly a protein known as a respiratory pigment. If present in invertebrates, the respiratory pigments are normally dissolved in the plasma and are not enclosed in blood cells. The constancy of the ionic constituents of blood and their similarity to seawater have been used by some scientists as evidence of a common origin for life in the sea.

An animal’s ability to control its gross blood concentration (i.e., the overall ionic concentration of the blood) largely governs its ability to tolerate environmental changes. In many marine invertebrates, such as echinoderms and some mollusks, the osmotic and ionic characteristics of the blood closely resemble those of seawater. Other aquatic, and all terrestrial, organisms, however, maintain blood concentrations that differ to some extent from their environments and thus have a greater potential range of habitats. In addition to maintaining the overall stability of the internal environment, blood has a range of other functions. It is the major means of transport of nutrients, metabolites, excretory products, hormones, and gases, and it may provide the mechanical force for such diverse processes as hatching and molting in arthropods and burrowing in bivalve mollusks.

Invertebrate blood may contain a number of cells (hemocytes) arising from the embryonic mesoderm. Many different types of hemocytes have been described in different species, but they have been studied most extensively in insects, in which four major types and functions have been suggested: (1) phagocytic cells that ingest foreign particles and parasites and in this way may confer some nonspecific immunity to the insect; (2) flattened hemocytes that adhere to the surface of the invader and remove its supply of oxygen, resulting in its death; metazoan parasites that are too large to be engulfed by the phagocytic cells may be encapsulated by these cells instead; (3) hemocytes that assist in the formation of connective tissue and the secretion of mucopolysaccharides during the formation of basement membranes; they may be involved in other aspects of intermediate metabolism as well; and (4) hemocytes that are concerned with wound healing; the plasma of many insects does not coagulate, and either pseudopodia or secreted particles from hemocytes (cystocytes) trap other such cells to close the lesion until the surface of the skin regenerates.

While the solubility of oxygen in blood plasma is adequate to supply the tissues of some relatively sedentary invertebrates, more active animals with increased oxygen demands require an additional oxygen carrier. The oxygen carriers in blood take the form of metal-containing protein molecules that frequently are coloured and thus commonly known as respiratory pigments. The most widely distributed respiratory pigments are the red hemoglobins, which have been reported in all classes of vertebrates, in most invertebrate phyla, and even in some plants. Hemoglobins consist of a variable number of subunits, each containing an iron–porphyrin group attached to a protein. The distribution of hemoglobins in just a few members of a phylum and in many different phyla argues that the hemoglobin type of molecule must have evolved many times with similar iron–porphyrin groups and different proteins.

The green chlorocruorins are also iron–porphyrin pigments and are found in the blood of a number of families of marine polychaete worms. There is a close resemblance between chlorocruorin and hemoglobin molecules, and a number of species of a genus, such as those of Serpula, contain both, while some closely related species exhibit an almost arbitrary distribution. For example, Spirorbis borealis has chlorocruorin, S. corrugatus has hemoglobin, and S. militaris has neither.

The third iron-containing pigments, the hemerythrins, are violet. They differ structurally from both hemoglobin and chlorocruorin in having no porphyrin groups and containing three times as much iron, which is attached directly to the protein. Hemerythrins are restricted to a small number of animals, including some polychaete and sipunculid worms, the brachiopod Lingula, and some priapulids.

Hemocyanins are copper-containing respiratory pigments found in many mollusks (some bivalves, many gastropods, and cephalopods) and arthropods (many crustaceans, some arachnids, and the horseshoe crab, Limulus). They are colourless when deoxygenated but turn blue on oxygenation. The copper is bound directly to the protein, and oxygen combines reversibly in the proportion of one oxygen molecule to two copper atoms.

The presence of a respiratory pigment greatly increases the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood; invertebrate blood may contain up to 10 percent oxygen with the pigment, compared with about 0.3 percent in the absence of the pigment. All respiratory pigments become almost completely saturated with oxygen even at oxygen levels, or pressures, below those normally found in air or water. The oxygen pressures at which the various pigments become saturated depend on their individual chemical characteristics and on such conditions as temperature, pH, and the presence of carbon dioxide.

In addition to their direct transport role, respiratory pigments may temporarily store oxygen for use during periods of respiratory suspension or decreased oxygen availability (hypoxia). They may also act as buffers to prevent large blood pH fluctuations, and they may have an osmotic function that helps to reduce fluid loss from aquatic organisms whose internal hydrostatic pressure tends to force water out of the body.


All systems involving the consistent movement of circulating fluid require at least one repeating pump and, if flow is to be in one direction, usually some arrangement of valves to prevent backflow. The simplest form of animal circulatory pump consists of a blood vessel down which passes a wave of muscular contraction, called peristalsis, that forces the enclosed blood in the direction of contraction. Valves may or may not be present. This type of heart is widely found among invertebrates, and there may be many pulsating vessels in a single individual.

In the earthworm, the main dorsal (aligned along the back) vessel contracts from posterior to anterior 15 to 20 times per minute, pumping blood toward the head. At the same time, the five paired segmental lateral (side) vessels, which branch from the dorsal vessel and link it to the ventral (aligned along the bottom) vessel, pulsate with their own independent rhythms. Although unusual, it is possible for a peristaltic heart to reverse direction. After a series of contractions in one direction, the hearts of tunicates (sea squirts) gradually slow down and eventually stop. After a pause the heart starts again, with reverse contractions pumping the blood in the opposite direction.

An elaboration of the simple peristaltic heart is found in the tubular heart of most arthropods, in which part of the dorsal vessel is expanded to form one or more linearly arranged chambers with muscular walls. The walls are perforated by pairs of lateral openings (ostia) that allow blood to flow into the heart from a large surrounding sinus, the pericardium. The heart may be suspended by alary muscles, contraction of which expands the heart and increases blood flow into it. The direction of flow is controlled by valves arranged in front of the in-current ostia.

Chambered hearts with valves and relatively thick muscular walls are less commonly found in invertebrates but do occur in some mollusks, especially cephalopods (octopus and squid). Blood from the gills enters one to four auricles (depending on the species) and is passed back to the tissues by contraction of the ventricle. The direction of flow is controlled by valves between the chambers. The filling and emptying of the heart are controlled by regular rhythmical contractions of the muscular wall.

In addition to the main systemic heart, many species have accessory booster hearts at critical points in the circulatory system. Cephalopods have special muscular dilations, the branchial hearts, that pump blood through the capillaries, and insects may have additional ampullar hearts at the points of attachment of many of their appendages.

The control of heart rhythm may be either myogenic (originating within the heart muscle itself) or neurogenic (originating in nerve ganglia). The hearts of the invertebrate mollusks, like those of vertebrates, are myogenic. They are sensitive to pressure and fail to give maximum beats unless distended; the beats become stronger and more frequent with increasing blood pressure. Although under experimental conditions acetylcholine (a substance that transmits nerve impulses across a synapse) inhibits molluscan heartbeat, indicating some stimulation of the heart muscle by the nervous system, cardiac muscle contraction will continue in excised hearts with no connection to the central nervous system. Tunicate hearts have two noninnervated, myogenic pacemakers, one at each end of the peristaltic pulsating vessel. Separately, each pacemaker causes a series of normal beats followed by a sequence of abnormal ones; together, they provide periodic reversals of blood flow.

The control of heartbeat in most other invertebrates is neurogenic, and one or more nerve ganglia with attendant nerve fibres control contraction. Removal of the ganglia stops the heart, and the administration of acetylcholine increases its rate. Adult heart control may be neurogenic but not necessarily in all stages in the life cycle. The embryonic heart may show myogenic peristaltic contractions prior to innervation.

Heart rate differs markedly among species and under different physiological states of a given individual. In general it is lower in sedentary or sluggish animals and faster in small ones. The rate increases with internal pressure but often reaches a plateau at optimal pressures. Normally, increasing the body temperature 10° C (50° F) causes an increase in heart rate of two to three times. Oxygen availability and the presence of carbon dioxide affect the heart rate, and during periods of hypoxia the heart rate may decrease to almost a standstill to conserve oxygen stores.

The time it takes for blood to complete a single circulatory cycle is also highly variable but tends to be much longer in invertebrates than in vertebrates. For example, in isolation, the circulation rate in mammals is about 10 to 30 seconds, for crustaceans about one minute, for cockroaches five to six minutes, and for other insects almost 30 minutes.

Acoelomates and pseudocoelomates

At the simplest levels of metazoan organization, where there are at most two cell layers, the tissues are arranged in sheets. The necessity for a formal circulatory system does not exist, nor are the mesodermal tissues, normally forming one, present. The addition of the mesodermal layer allows greater complexity of organ development and introduces further problems in supplying all cells with their essential requirements.

Invertebrate phyla have developed a number of solutions to these problems; most but not all involve the development of a circulatory system: as described above, sponges and cnidarians permit all cells direct access to environmental water. Among the acoelomate phyla, the members of Platyhelminthes (flatworms) have no body cavity, and the space between the gut and the body wall, when present, is filled with a spongy organ tissue of mesodermal cells through which tissue fluids may percolate. Dorsoventral (back to front) flattening, ramifying gut ceca (cavities open at one end), and, in the endoparasitic flatworm forms, glycolytic metabolic pathways (which release metabolic energy in the absence of oxygen) reduce diffusion distances and the need for oxygen and allow the trematodes and turbellarians of this phylum to maintain their normal metabolic rates in the absence of an independent circulatory system. The greatly increased and specialized body surface of the cestodes (tapeworms) of this phylum has allowed them to dispense with the gut as well. Most of the other acoelomate invertebrate animals are small enough that direct diffusion constitutes the major means of internal transport.

One acoelomate phylum, Nemertea (proboscis worms), contains the simplest animals possessing a true vascular system. In its basic form there may be only two vessels situated one on each side of the straight gut. The vessels unite anteriorly by a cephalic space and posteriorly by an anal space lined by a thin membrane. The system is thus closed, and the blood does not directly bathe the tissues. The main vessels are contractile, but blood flow is irregular and it may move backward or forward within an undefined circuit. The blood is usually colourless, although some species contain pigmented blood cells whose function remains obscure; phagocytic amoebocytes are usually also present. Although remaining fundamentally simple, the system can grow more elaborate with the addition of extra vessels.

Pseudocoelomate metazoans have a fluid-filled body cavity, the pseudocoelom, which, unlike a true coelom, does not have a cellular peritoneal lining. Most of the pseudocoelomates (e.g., the classes Nematoda and Rotifera) are small and none possess an independent vascular system. Muscular body and locomotor movements may help to circulate nutrients within the pseudocoelom between the gut and the body wall. The lacunar system of channels within the body wall of the gutless acanthocephalans (spiny-headed worms) may represent a means of circulation of nutrients absorbed through the body wall. Hemoglobin has been found in the pseudocoelomic fluid of a number of nematodes, but its precise role in oxygen transport is not known.


Despite their greater potential complexity, many of the minor coelomate phyla (e.g., Pogonophora, Sipuncula, and Bryozoa) contain small animals that rely on direct diffusion and normal muscular activity to circulate the coelomic fluid. All of the major and some of the minor phyla have well-developed blood vascular systems, often of open design.


While some small segmented worms of the phylum Annelida have no separate circulatory system, most have a well-developed closed system. The typical arrangement is for the main contractile dorsal vessel to carry blood anteriorly while a number of vertical segmental vessels, often called hearts, carry it to the ventral vessel, in which it passes posteriorly. Segmental branches supply and collect blood from the respiratory surfaces, the gut, and the excretory organs.

There is, however, great scope for variation on the basic circulatory pattern. Many species have a large intestinal sinus rather than a series of vessels supplying the gut, and there may be differences along the length of a single individual. The posterior blood may flow through an intestinal sinus, the medial flow through a dense capillary plexus, and the anterior flow through typical segmental capillaries. Much modification and complication may occur in species in which the body is divided into more or less distinct regions with specific functions.

Many polychaete worms (class Polychaeta), especially the fanworms but also representatives of other families, have many blind-ending contractile vessels. Continual reversals of flow within these vessels virtually replace the normal continuous-flow capillary system.

In most leeches (class Hirudinea), much of the coelomic space is filled with mesodermal connective tissue, leaving a series of interconnecting coelomic channels. A vascular system comparable to other annelids is present in a few species, but in most the coelomic channels containing blood (strictly coelomic fluid) have taken over the function of internal transport, with movement induced by contraction of longitudinal lateral channels.

The blood of many annelids contains a respiratory pigment dissolved in the plasma, and the coelomic fluid of others may contain coelomic blood cells containing hemoglobin. The most common blood pigments are hemoglobin and chlorocruorin, but their occurrence does not fit any simple evolutionary pattern. Closely related species may have dissimilar pigments, while distant relatives may have similar ones. In many species the pigments function in oxygen transport, but in others they are probably more important as oxygen stores for use during periods of hypoxia.

In addition to internal circulation, many polychaete worms also set up circulatory currents for feeding and respiration. Tube-dwelling worms may use muscular activity to pass a current of oxygenated water containing food through their burrows, while filter-feeding fanworms use ciliary activity to establish complicated patterns of water flow through their filtering fans.


The phylum Echiura (spoonworms) contains a small number of marine worms with a circulatory system of similar general pattern to that of the annelids. Main dorsal and ventral vessels are united by contractile circumintestinal vessels that pump the colourless blood. Coelomic fluid probably aids in oxygen transport and may contain some cells with hemoglobin.


With the exception of the cephalopods, members of the phylum Mollusca have an open circulatory system. The chambered, myogenic heart normally has a pair of posterior auricles draining the gills and an anterior ventricle that pumps the blood through the anterior aorta to the tissue sinuses, excretory organs, and gills. Many gastropods lack a second set of gills, and in these the right auricle is vestigial or absent. The heart is enclosed within the coelomic cavity, which also surrounds part of the intestine. The single aorta branches, and blood is delivered into arterial sinuses, where it directly bathes the tissues. It is collected in a large venous cephalopedal sinus and, after passing through the excretory organs, returns to the gills. The hydrostatic pressure that develops in the blood sinuses of the foot, especially of bivalve mollusks, is used in locomotion. Blood flow into the foot is controlled by valves: as the pressure increases, the foot elongates and anchors into the substratum; muscular contraction then pulls the animal back down to the foot. This type of locomotion is seen most commonly in burrowing species, who move through the substratum almost exclusively by this means.

Like the annelids, many mollusks, especially the more sedentary bivalves, set up local feeding and respiratory currents. Fluid movement through the mantle cavity normally depends on muscular pumping through inhalant and exhalant siphons. Within the cavity itself, however, ciliary activity maintains continuous movement across the gill surfaces, collecting food particles and passing them to the mouth.

The cephalopods are more active than other mollusks and consequently have higher metabolic rates and circulatory systems of a higher order of organization. These systems are closed with distinct arteries, veins, and capillaries; the blood (6 percent of body weight) remains distinct from the interstitial fluid (15 percent of body weight). These relative percentages of body weight to blood volume are similar to those of vertebrates and differ markedly from those of species with open circulatory systems, in which hemolymph may constitute 40 to 50 percent of body weight.

The cephalopod heart usually consists of a median ventricle and two auricles. Arterial blood is pumped from the ventricle through anterior and posterior aortas that supply the head and body, respectively. It is passed through the capillary beds of the organs, is collected, and is returned to the heart through a major venous vessel, the vena cava. The vena cava bifurcates (divides into two branches) near the excretory organs, and each branch enters the nephridial sac before passing to the accessory hearts situated at the base of the gills. Veins draining the anterior and posterior mantle and the gonads merge with the branches of the vena cava before reaching the branchial hearts. Contraction of the branchial hearts increases the blood pressure and forces blood through the gill capillaries. The auricles then drain the gills of oxygenated blood.

The blood of most mollusks, including cephalopods, contains hemocyanin, although a few gastropods use hemoglobin. In the cephalopods the pigment unloads at relatively high oxygen pressures, indicating that it is used to transport rather than store oxygen.

Rapid cephalopod locomotion depends almost entirely on water pressure. During inhalation, muscular activity within the mantle wall increases the volume of the mantle cavity and water rushes in. Contraction of the circular mantle muscles closes the edge of the mantle and reduces its volume, forcing the enclosed water through the mobile funnel at high pressure. The force of water leaving the funnel propels the animal in the opposite direction.


Members of the phylum Brachiopoda (lamp shells) superficially resemble the mollusks but are not related. The circulatory system of brachiopods is open and consists of a small contractile heart situated over the gut, from which anterior and posterior channels supply sinuses in the wall of the gut, the mantle wall, and the reproductive organs.


The blood vascular system of arthropods is open. The coelom is much reduced, and most of the spaces in the arthropod body are hemocoels. The tubular heart is dorsal and contained in a pericardial sinus. Blood is pumped from the heart through a series of vessels (arteries) that lead to the tissue sinuses. Although the blood flows freely through the tissues it may, especially in the larger species, be directed by membranes along a more or less constant pathway. The blood collects in a ventral sinus from which it is conducted back to the heart through one or more venous channels.

Variations in the circulatory patterns of the different classes of the phylum Arthropoda largely reflect the method of respiratory exchange and consequent function of the blood vascular system. Most of the aquatic species of the class Crustacea have gills with a well-developed circulatory system, including accessory hearts to increase blood flow through the gills. A small number of species lack gills and a heart, and oxygen is absorbed through the body surface; bodily movements or peristaltic gut contractions circulate the blood within the tissue spaces.

In the mainly terrestrial class Insecta, the role of oxygen transport has been removed from the blood and taken over by the ramifying tracheal system that carries gaseous atmospheric oxygen directly to the consuming tissues. Insects are able to maintain the high metabolic rates necessary for flight while retaining a relatively inefficient circulatory system.

Among the chelicerate (possessing fanglike front appendages) arthropods (for example, scorpions, spiders, ticks, and mites), the horseshoe crab, Limulus, has a series of book gills (gills arranged in membranous folds) on either side of the body into which blood from the ventral sinus passes for oxygenation prior to return to the heart. The largely terrestrial arachnids may have book lungs that occupy a similar position in the circulatory pathway, a tracheal system comparable to that of insects, or, in the case of smaller species, reduced tracheal and vascular systems in which contractions of the body muscles cause blood circulation through the sinus network.

The legs of spiders are unusual because they lack extensor muscles and because blood is used as hydraulic fluid to extend the legs in opposition to flexor muscles. The blood pressure of a resting spider is equal to that of a human being and may double during activity. The high pressure is maintained by valves in the anterior aorta and represents an exception to the general rule that open circulatory systems only function at low pressure.


The circulatory systems of echinoderms (sea urchins, starfishes, and sea cucumbers) are complicated as they have three largely independent fluid systems. The large fluid-filled coelom that surrounds the internal organs constitutes the major medium for internal transport. Circulatory currents set up by the ciliated cells of the coelomic lining distribute nutrients from the gut to the body wall. Phagocytic coelomocytes are present, and in some species these contain hemoglobin. The coelomic fluid has the same osmotic pressure as seawater, and the inability to regulate that pressure has confined the echinoderms to wholly marine habitats.

The blood-vascular (hemal) system is reduced and consists of small, fluid-filled sinuses that lack a distinct lining. The system is most highly developed in the holothurians (sea cucumbers), in which it consists of an anterior hemal ring and radial hemal sinuses. The most prominent features are the dorsal and ventral sinuses, which accompany the intestine and supply it through numerous smaller channels. The dorsal sinus is contractile, and fluid is pumped through the intestinal sinuses into the ventral sinus and thence to the hemal ring. Most members of the class Holothuroidea have a pair of respiratory trees, located in the coelom on either side of the intestine, which act as the major sites for respiratory exchange. Each tree consists of a main tubular trunk with numerous side branches, each ending in a small vesicle. Water is passed through the tubules by the pumping action of the cloaca. The branches of the left tree are intermingled with the intestinal hemal sinuses and provide a means of oxygenating the blood via the coelomic fluid. The right tree is free in the coelomic fluid and has no close association with the hemal system. Respiratory exchange in other echinoderms is through thin areas of the body wall, and the hemal system tends to be reduced.

The water vascular system of echinoderms is best developed in the starfishes and functions as a means of locomotion and respiratory exchange. The entire system consists of a series of fluid-filled canals lined with ciliated epithelium and derived from the coelom. The canals connect to the outside through a porous, button-shaped plate, called the madreporite, which is united via a duct (the stone canal) with a circular canal (ring canal) that circumvents the mouth. Long canals radiate from the water ring into each arm. Lateral canals branch alternately from the radial canals, each terminating in a muscular sac (or ampulla) and a tube foot (podium), which commonly has a flattened tip that can act as a sucker. Contraction of the sac results in a valve in the lateral canal closing as the contained fluid is forced into the podium, which elongates. On contact with the substratum, the centre of the distal end of the podium is withdrawn, resulting in a partial vacuum and adhesion that is aided by the production of a copious adhesive secretion. Withdrawal results from contraction of the longitudinal muscles of the podia.


Among the phylum Hemichordata are the enteropneusts (acornworms), which are worm-shaped inhabitants of shallow seas and have a short, conical proboscis, which gives them their common name. The vascular system of the Enteropneusta is open, with two main contractile vessels and a system of sinus channels. The colourless blood passes forward in the dorsal vessel, which widens at the posterior of the proboscis into a space, the contractile wall of which pumps the blood into the glomerulus, an organ formed from an in-tucking of the hind wall of the proboscis cavity. From the glomerulus the blood is collected into two channels that lead backward to the ventral longitudinal vessel. This vessel supplies the body wall and gut with a network of sinuses that eventually drain back into the dorsal vessel.


The phylum Chordata contains all animals that possess, at some time in their life cycles, a stiffening rod (the notochord), as well as other common features. The subphylum Vertebrata is a member of this phylum and will be discussed later (see below The vertebrate circulatory system). All other chordates are called protochordates and are classified into two groups: Tunicata and Cephalochordata.

The blood-vascular system of the tunicates, or sea squirts, is open, the heart consisting of no more than a muscular fold in the pericardium. There is no true heart wall or lining and the whole structure is curved or U-shaped, with one end directed dorsally and the other ventrally. Each end opens into large vessels that lack true walls and are merely sinus channels. The ventral vessel runs along the ventral side of the pharynx and branches to form a lattice around the slits in the pharyngeal wall through which the respiratory water currents pass. Blood circulating through this pharyngeal grid is provided with a large surface area for gaseous exchange. The respiratory water currents are set up by the action of cilia lining the pharyngeal slits and, in some species, by regular muscular contractions of the body wall. Dorsally, the network of pharyngeal blood vessels drains into a longitudinal channel that runs into the abdomen and breaks up into smaller channels supplying the digestive loop of the intestine and the other visceral organs. The blood passes into a dorsal abdominal sinus that leads back to the dorsal side of the heart. The circulatory system of the sea squirt is marked by periodic reversals of blood flow caused by changes in the direction of peristaltic contraction of the heart.

Sea squirt blood has a slightly higher osmotic pressure than seawater and contains a number of different types of amoebocytes, some of which are phagocytic and actively migrate between the blood and the tissues. The blood of some sea squirts also contains green cells, which have a unique vanadium-containing pigment of unknown function.

Amphioxus (Branchiostoma lanceolatum) is a cephalochordate that possesses many typical vertebrate features but lacks the cranial cavity and vertebral column of the true vertebrate. Its circulatory pattern differs from that of most invertebrates as the blood passes forward in the ventral and backward in the dorsal vessels. A large sac, the sinus venosus, is situated below the posterior of the pharynx and collects blood from all parts of the body. The blood passes forward through the subpharyngeal ventral aorta, from which branches carry it to small, accessory, branchial hearts that pump it upward through the gill arches. The oxygenated blood is collected into two dorsal aortas that continue forward into the snout and backward to unite behind the pharynx. The single median vessel thus formed branches to vascular spaces and the intestinal capillaries. Blood from the gut collects in a median subintestinal vein and flows forward to the liver, where it passes through a second capillary bed before being collected in the hepatic vein and passing to the sinus venosus. Paired anterior and posterior cardinal veins collect blood from the muscles and body wall. These veins lead, through a pair of common cardinal veins (duct of Cuvier), to the sinus venosus.

There is no single heart in the amphioxus, and blood is transported by contractions that arise independently in the sinus venosus, branchial hearts, subintestinal vein, and other vessels. The blood is nonpigmented and does not contain cells; oxygen transport is by simple solution in the blood.

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