Modern amphibians are characterized by the flexibility of their gaseous exchange mechanisms. Amphibian skin is moistened by mucous secretions and is well supplied with blood vessels. It is used for respiration to varying degrees. When lungs are present, carbon dioxide may pass out of the body across the skin, but in some salamanders there are no lungs and all respiratory exchanges occur via the skin. Even in such animals as frogs, it seems that oxygen can be taken up at times by the skin, under water for example. Therefore, regulation of respiration occurs within a single species, and the relative contribution of skin and lungs varies during the life of the animal.

The amphibian heart is generally of a tripartite structure, with a divided atrium but a single ventricle. The lungless salamanders, however, have no atrial septum, and one small and unfamiliar group, the caecilians, has signs of a septum in the ventricle. It is not known whether the original amphibians had septa in both atrium and ventricle. They may have, and the absence of septa in many modern forms may simply be a sign of a flexible approach to the use of skin or lung, or both, as the site of oxygen exchange. In addition, the ventricle is subdivided by muscular columns into many compartments that tend to prevent the free mixing of blood.

The conus arteriosus is muscular and contains a spiral valve. Again, as in lungfishes, this has an important role in directing blood into the correct arterial arches. In the frog, Rana, venous blood is driven into the right atrium of the heart by contraction of the sinus venosus, and it flows into the left atrium from the lungs. A wave of contraction then spreads over the whole atrium and drives blood into the ventricle, where blood from the two sources tends to remain separate. Separation is maintained in the spiral valve, and the result is similar to the situation in lungfishes. Blood from the body, entering the right atrium, tends to pass to the lungs and skin for oxygenation; that from the lungs, entering the left atrium, tends to go to the head. Some mixing does occur, and this blood tends to be directed by the spiral valve into the arterial arch leading to the body.

Blood returning from the skin does not enter the circulation at the same point as blood from the lungs. Thus, oxygenated blood arrives at the heart from two different directions—from the sinus venosus, to which the cutaneous (skin) vein connects, and from the pulmonary vein. Both right and left atria receive oxygenated blood, which must be directed primarily to the carotid arteries supplying the head and brain. It is likely that variable shunting of blood in the ventricle is important in ensuring this. A ventricular septum would inhibit shunting; it is at least possible that its absence in amphibians is not a primitive feature but a secondary adaptation to variable gas-exchange mechanisms.

The amphibian venous system shows various features that are characteristic of land vertebrates. The posterior cardinal veins are replaced by a posterior vena cava, but they are still visible in salamanders. There is a renal portal system, and an alternative route back to the heart from the legs is provided by an anterior abdominal vein that enters the hepatic portal vein to the liver.

Amphibian larvae and the adults of some species have gills. There are four arterial arches in salamanders (urodeles) and three in frogs (anurans). These are three through six of the original series, the fifth disappearing in adult frogs. There is no ventral aorta, and the arterial arches arise directly from the conus—an important feature, given that the conus and its spiral valve control the composition of blood reaching each arterial arch. The names given to the three arterial arches of frogs are those used in all land vertebrates, including mammals. They are the carotid (the third), systemic (the fourth), and pulmonary (the sixth) arches. Blood to the lungs (and skin in frogs) is always carried by the sixth arterial arch, which loses its connection to the dorsal aorta. All land vertebrates supply their lungs with deoxygenated blood from this source.

Reptiles

Unlike lungfishes and amphibians, reptiles depend entirely on their lungs for respiration. Gills and skin do not provide additional sources of oxygen. Only the crocodiles, however, truly approach birds and mammals in their almost complete “double” circulation. Because of the development of a neck and relative elongation of that region of the body, the heart may be displaced posteriorly and the arrangement of arteries and veins may be altered accordingly. In general, however, the circulatory system resembles that in frogs.

Various changes can be seen in the reptilian heart. The left atrium is smaller than the right and always completely separate from it. The sinus venosus is present but small. The ventricle is variously subdivided in different groups. Three arterial trunks arise directly from the ventricle, the conus having been partly incorporated into it. The three trunks are the right and left systemic arches and the pulmonary arch. The carotid arch is a branch of the right systemic arch. When the ventricle is actually beating, there is functional separation of blood from the two atria so that most oxygenated blood flows to the carotid arteries and hardly mixes with deoxygenated blood going to the lungs.

Crocodiles are the only living representatives of the archosaurian reptiles, the group that included the dinosaurs and from which birds evolved. Crocodiles have a complete ventricular septum, producing two equally sized chambers. The blood from the right and left atria is not mixed; despite this, there is an opening at the base of the right and left systemic arches, and blood can be shunted between the two. This is important during diving, when blood flow to the lungs is decreased. The crocodile heart is situated so posteriorly that the subclavian artery, which would normally arise from the dorsal aorta at the level of the systemic arch, arises from the carotid artery.

Birds

Bird circulatory systems have many similarities to those of reptiles, from which they evolved. The changes that have occurred are more of degree than of kind. The heart is completely divided into right and left sides. The sinus venosus is incorporated into the right auricle and becomes the sinoauricular node. It is from this point that the heartbeat is initiated. There is no conus, and only two vessels leave the divided ventricle. These are the pulmonary artery from the right side and the systemic arch from the left. The systemic arch is asymmetrical—the main difference in this area between birds and lizards. Only the right part of the systemic arch is present, the left being suppressed. The arterial arches are no longer bilaterally symmetrical. Another difference between birds and lizards is found in the venous circulation: the renal portal system is reduced in birds.

Mammals

Mammals also evolved from reptiles, but not from the same group as did birds, and must have developed their double circulation independently from early reptiles. Nevertheless, several parallel changes occurred, such as the common incorporation of the sinus venosus into the right auricle. The most striking manifestation of different origins is seen in the mammalian aorta, which leaves the left ventricle and curves to the left. The aorta corresponds to the left half of the systemic arch, while the right is missing. The carotid arteries arise from the left systemic arch (aorta), though their precise position varies among mammals. The arterial system is asymmetric, as in birds, but in the opposite way.

The heart of both mammals and birds is a double pump, powering two systems of vessels with different characteristics. The left ventricle has a thicker layer of muscle around it, a necessary adaptation for powering its beat against the high resistance of the extensive systemic circulation throughout the body. The right ventricle has a thinner wall, consistent with its role in pumping blood to the lungs against a much lower resistance.