Arthropod Vs. Human Circulatory System

Arthropod vs. Human Circulatory System

The circulatory system, also known as the cardiovascular system, is an organ in an organism's body that aids with filtering blood and transferring nutrients throughout the body. This system consists mainly of a heart, blood vessels (in some animals), and more than 5 liters of blood. All animals have very similar organs, except for the fact that they function differently and other names for each system. In addition to filtering blood and transferring nutrients, the circulatory system assists with moving oxygen, cellular waste, and hormones to their assigned places. The circulatory system is run by a hard-working muscular organ, the heart, although in different organisms they may contain a similar organ

Instead they have the dorsal vessel which is a flexible tube running at length to the thorax and abdomen along the dorsal body wall. This “heart” has a closed hole at the posterior end and is open on the anterior end. The abdomen section of the dorsal vessel is considered the heart in arthropods. It is up divided into three chambers that are separated by ostia (tiny valve-like openings) where blood enters. Each chamber has a pair of alary muscles that expand and contract to ease the flow of hemolymph through the heart. Hemolymph enters the ostia when the alary muscles of the heart are relaxed. The alary muscles contract which prevents the blood from flowing back the other way. Then, the contractions push the hemolymph from the posterior end to the anterior end, thus leading to the aorta. The simple tube on upper portion of the dorsal vessel that promotes the transport of hemolymph to the head and emptying into the body cavity is called the aorta. The hemolymph then exits the vessel by flowing through the body cavity, thus, touching all the organs and tissues. On the other hand, humans have an actual fist sized heart with four chambers. It is located right behind and slightly left to the breast bone. The heart is not completely centered in the human body. Two thirds of the heart is located on the left side while one third is located on the right side. The heart pumps blood through the network of arteries and veins (cardiovascular system). Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood from the heart through the body while veins carry oxygen-poor blood back to the heart. The heart pumps some blood to the lungs while the rest goes to the other organs in the body. Blood enters the heart through a vein and collects in the atrium. The atrium then contracts pusing the blood into a ventricle. Next, the ventricle contracts and all the blood is forced out through an artery and into the lungs or rest of the body. The valves in each