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The heart in the picture at the left has been removed from the pericardial sac.
Blood returning from the peripheral circulation is deoxygenated when it enters the right side of the heart and is pumped to the lungs to be oxygenated. Oxygenated blood returning from the lungs enters the left side of the heart and is circulated to the rest of the body. Veins have been injected with blue latex and arteries have been injected with red latex.
Click on the numbers to test your knowledge of the structures through which the blood travels in route to becoming oxygenated.
Click here to view an animation of blood flowing through the heart - Click on cardiology tab - more about basic cardiac anatomy/physiology
Click here for a close up of the circulation of the blood in the lung
Click here to more closely examine the internal structure of the heart
Click here to follow the path the blood takes into the forearm.
Click here to follow the path the blood takes into the abdominal area
Click here to follow the path the blood takes into the hind limb
Click here to differences explore differences in the circulation patterns of vertebrates - click on vertebrate circulatorium (right side of screen).