Species: Sea Cucumber
A sea cucumber, has a unique circulatory system for the phylum Echinodermata. Along with the Water vascular system that all echinodermata have, sea cucumbers also have a blood vascular system. The blood vascular system contains two major vessels running parallel to the gut. The dorsal vessel pumps colorless blood through vessels in the walls of the intestine into the ventral vessel. There are two areas of the circulation. The first is at the upper small intestine where 120 muscular single-chambered hearts like things pump blood from the dorsal vessel into a series of intestinal plates. Also, at the lower region of the small intestine the vasculature is associated with the left respiratory tree. Blood passing from the dorsal pulmonary vessel can only take two routes to the gut. The two routes is that it either passes through a bunch of small respiratory vessels entangled with the respiratory tree, or it can pass through a network consisting of tiny channels periodically dilated into chambers filled with iron deposits, necrotic cells and developing coelomocytes.
A sea cucumber, has a unique circulatory system for the phylum Echinodermata. Along with the Water vascular system that all echinodermata have, sea cucumbers also have a blood vascular system. The blood vascular system contains two major vessels running parallel to the gut. The dorsal vessel pumps colorless blood through vessels in the walls of the intestine into the ventral vessel. There are two areas of the circulation. The first is at the upper small intestine where 120 muscular single-chambered hearts like things pump blood from the dorsal vessel into a series of intestinal plates. Also, at the lower region of the small intestine the vasculature is associated with the left respiratory tree. Blood passing from the dorsal pulmonary vessel can only take two routes to the gut. The two routes is that it either passes through a bunch of small respiratory vessels entangled with the respiratory tree, or it can pass through a network consisting of tiny channels periodically dilated into chambers filled with iron deposits, necrotic cells and developing coelomocytes.