The octopus has three hearts and blue blood. How many hearts can an octopus have? Fish and their neighbors

The internal organs of a glass frog, including its heart

Of course, the human heart is an amazing miracle, thanks to which we live, it is a vessel of the soul, and so on. However, is it capable of self-healing? Does it pump exceptionally pure blood? Is it possible to freeze it and then bring it back to life?

The hearts of some animal species are capable of this and more. We researched animal world, ranging from the depths of the ocean to the summit of the Himalayas, for heart wonders, and here's what we've been able to discover.

Insects


viscera earthworm, including his five pseudo-hearts

Earthworm

Depending on which point of view you hold, earthworms either have five "hearts" or no heart at all. Although they do not have the usual muscular organ with multiple chambers, they do have five special blood vessels called "aortic arches". Contracting, the aortic arches pump blood throughout the body of the worm. So what if you accidentally hurt your heart earthworm, don't worry - he has four more pieces exactly the same.

Cockroach

The human heart consists of four chambers, each of which performs a specific function - if something happens to one of them, something irreparable will happen. In turn, the cockroach heart has twelve to thirteen chambers, which are arranged in a row and are driven by a separate group of muscles. This means that if one camera stops functioning, nothing will happen to the cockroach.


hoverfly

hoverfly

Hoverfly flies love to soar in the air above the flowers, collecting precious pollen. Helping them do this is what is essentially the heart that pumps blood to the head and chest where they are oral apparatus and muscles responsible for flapping wings.

Fish and their neighbors

Danio rerio

In this small beautiful fish beating heart of a real superhero. In 2002, scientists found that if up to 20% of the lower ventricle was removed from the zebrafish, the fish would be able to restore the lost tissue within two months. This is due to specialized muscle cells that are capable of not only regenerating, but also stimulating the growth of new blood vessels. By studying the self-healing hearts of zebrafish, scientists hope to apply what they have learned to human organs.


spiky-nosed whiteblood

spiky-nosed whiteblood

The spiky whitefish lives in the Southern Ocean at a depth of one kilometer. How does she manage to deal with the cold? Thanks in part to her heart, which is much larger and about five times stronger than a normal heart. aquarium fish. The blood of the spiky whitefish also lacks hemoglobin, the red protein responsible for binding oxygen. Instead, thanks to low temperatures, oxygen dissolves directly in the plasma of the spiky whitefish, which causes the transparency of its blood.


Anatomy of a cuttlefish

Cuttlefish

Like all cephalopods, the cuttlefish has three hearts - one heart each for a pair of gills and one heart for the rest of the body. Research results show that cuttlefish living in cold waters have larger size hearts than those that dwell in warm waters; this is due to an increase in aerobic capacity. In addition, their blood contains hemocyanin (instead of hemoglobin), which gives it a blue color. Cuttlefish are true aristocrats.

Birds


Hummingbird captured in flight

You have probably heard that hummingbirds make 15 flaps of their wings in one second - and all thanks to the possession of a unique heart, which contracts up to 21 times per second and provides fast delivery of oxygen to muscle mitochondria.

mountain goose

Migration is not an easy process for all birds, but mountain geese are the least fortunate in this regard: their route runs right over the Himalayas. These birds regularly fly over mountain passes at an altitude of 6000 meters above sea level - and all thanks to the fact that they have an unusual strong heart associated with the muscles that are involved in flight, a set of additional capillaries.



emperor penguins

Emperor penguins are famous for their soft hearts. Most its couple time emperor penguins spend taking care of each other and their offspring. Less well known, but very important, is the fact that emperor penguin hearts work extremely slowly, especially during immersion in water: they make about 15 contractions per minute, cutting off the blood supply to all (except vital) organs and providing the body with just that much oxygen. required for deep sea hunting.

Reptiles and amphibians

forest frog

The hearts of many animals, from bears to marmots, slow down when they hibernate, but as far as we know, wood frogs may stop beating altogether during this period. In winter, these frogs essentially turn into "icicles": thanks to a special solution in their cells, they can suspend metabolic activity and allow most of the water in their body to solidify without any consequences. Their hearts take it for granted; they stop beating when the world freezes, and resume activity when it warms up.

glass frog

All frogs have a three-chambered heart with two atria that receive blood from other parts of the body and one ventricle that shunts it back. glass frogs are unique in that you can observe this whole process with your own eyes - their translucent skin on the belly allows a person to see the work of the heart and blood vessels inside these amphibians.


The python waits for its prey

Python

After a python has a good "lunch", its heart increases in size by 40 percent due to fatty acids received with food. (This speeds up digestion, a process that can take up to several days for pythons.)

mammals


Heart blue whale which is kept in the Royal Ontario Museum

Blue whale

Popular legend has it that a blue whale's heart is the size of a car, and a human can easily crawl through its aorta. This is not entirely true. According to Jacqueline Miller, the heart of a blue whale is the size of "a small golf cart or a circus electric car with a bumper," and only one human head will fit in its aorta.


Giraffe

The giraffe's heart has to fight against the pressure of gravity every day to deliver blood to the head of this long-necked animal. He manages to do this thanks to very thick and strong walls and blood vessels that expand and contract at a rapid pace. As the giraffe's neck lengthens, the blood vessels also undergo changes, becoming thicker.

Cheetah

The heart of a cheetah at rest beats about 120 beats per minute - about the same as the heart of a person who is jogging. While the maximum human heart rate is approximately 220 beats per minute - and it takes some time to reach it, the cheetah's "heart rocket" is capable of reaching a frequency of up to 250 beats per minute in just a few seconds. This change is so intense that it allows the cheetah to run at top speed for only about 20 seconds, after which the predator's organs begin to overheat and become damaged.

Man and the vast majority of creatures living on our planet and having a circulatory system have only one heart.

Therefore, it is difficult for us to imagine that someone has several hearts at once. In fact, such animals exist, and the most famous of them is the octopus.

What surprises people with octopuses?

Octopuses are unusual, they excite the human imagination, cause fear and even horror. For scientists, these molluscs have always been of particular interest. As the study progressed, it turned out that they have a peculiar structure: a huge brain, an unusual digestive system, a characteristic way of moving in aquatic environment. But the most surprising thing was that octopuses have not one, but three hearts at once.

This feature is known and well studied. In any octopus - both the smallest ones that fit on the end of a finger, and four-meter giants - the circulatory system is arranged in this way.

How do octopus hearts work?

First of all, let's remember how the circulatory system of any animals functions. The heart pushes to the respiratory organs (in humans, these are the lungs, in the octopus, the gills), where it is saturated with oxygen. This enriched blood then enters the heart, which sends it to all organs to ensure their respiration and metabolic processes.

As a rule, only one heart can do this job, but nature has come up with a different scheme for the octopus. It has two functions (capturing oxygen and delivering it throughout the body) divided between one main and two additional hearts. The main heart of the mollusk in its structure and physiology remotely resembles the hearts of developed vertebrates. It consists of three chambers and serves to saturate all organs with blood. By the way, three cameras is a great evolutionary achievement! Even fish have only one chamber, and only amphibians that have landed have “thought of” the three-chamber structure!


The two extra hearts push the blood with great force to the gills, where it receives the oxygen it needs. They are located next to the gills - one for each - and are called "gills".

So three hearts sea ​​mollusk work in harmony.

Why do octopuses have so many hearts?

If one heart is enough for most living beings, then why did the octopus need three? The fact is that its gills are very dense, tight. It takes a lot of effort to push blood through them.

In the case of the octopus, evolution "made an ingenious decision": it divided the work among three hearts. Additional ones overcome the resistance of the gills, so that the blood receives oxygen.

Why is the octopus called the "sea aristocrat"?

Octopuses deservedly enjoy the reputation of unusual creatures, because even their blood is of a real blue hue! It is provided by hemocyanin molecules.

Hemocyanin is an analogue of hemoglobin and serves to carry oxygen, that is, for respiration. But if hemoglobin contains iron salts, then hemocyanin contains copper salts. Therefore, in humans and other warm-blooded, and in " sea ​​aristocrat"- blue.

Who else has a few hearts?

The presence of several hearts is an extremely rare occurrence in nature. Species of animals with a similar feature can be counted on the fingers. In addition to octopuses, earthworms and hagfish, extremely unpleasant creatures that live in the seas, have more than a few hearts. Circulatory system earthworms primitive: it consists of two vessels stretched through a long body. To drive blood, there are a number of muscle thickenings on the vessels, which can conditionally be called hearts.

Mixins have four hearts - the main one and three additional ones. Probably the presence of several hearts is one of the reasons for the amazing vitality of these monsters.


Paleontologists have suggested that brontosaurs, huge fossil lizards that possessed long neck, also had a few hearts. Otherwise, how could blood overcome gravity, rising several meters up to the head of a dinosaur?

By the way, a person can also have more than one heart, but this is not the norm, but a game of nature. People with two synchronously working hearts can live happily ever after - such cases have been recorded in the history of medicine, although very rarely.

Octopuses are one of the most mysterious sea creatures. Many people wonder how many hearts an octopus has.

Octopuses are one of the most mysterious sea creatures.

No place on Earth contains as many diverse and outlandish creatures as the seas and oceans. Many inhabitants of the seabed are the oldest representatives of the planet, much older than man and all animals. One such creature is the octopus. cephalopod, the size of which can reach 7-8 m.

Octopuses can be different. So, their size varies from a few centimeters to 8 m. The weight of the largest octopus was more than 200 kg, although usually it does not exceed 15-20 kg.

No place on Earth contains as many diverse and outlandish creatures as the seas and oceans.

The question of its color can be confusing: this mollusk is different colors Moreover, they are able to change their appearance almost instantly. Therefore, a very different description can be applied to an octopus.

They have a soft oval body, similar to a ball, dressed in something resembling a mantle - a skin-muscle bag, which can be smooth or pimply, depending on the type of mollusk. On the body are 8 tentacles that surround the mouth of the octopus.

The mollusk catches its prey thanks to special suction cups located on inside tentacles. There are a lot of these suction cups - several hundred on one "hand".

Tentacles are needed not only to grab prey: they also have visual analyzers that allow you to assess the environment.

Many inhabitants of the seabed are the oldest representatives of the planet, much older than humans and all animals.

The mollusk is the owner of outstanding eyes. They are huge and occupy about 10% of the entire body, the size of the eyeball can reach 40 cm. anatomical structure The eyes of octopuses are similar to human ones, but they still have a slightly different scheme for perceiving the world.

The only solid part of the body of the octopus is its beak, which looks like a bird. It is he who can become a limitation for the mollusk in trying to crawl into any hole, since the rest of his body is so soft that it can penetrate into any gap.

The internal structure of the octopus has always been of interest to people, since many people know the fact that it has several hearts. Therefore, a common question is how many hearts an octopus has. This mollusk has 3 heart muscles.

This peculiarity of them is explained by the fact that they have a very strong blood resistance, which one heart simply could not cope with. Thus, this mollusk is the only representative of the animal world that has as many as 3 hearts.

Octopus Volcano (video)

Features of the cardiac system

One of the 3 hearts of the octopus is the main one - it drives blood throughout the body. It is larger in size than the others and consists of two atria and a small ventricle. This heart bears the main burden of ensuring the vital activity of the body.

Two other cardiac organs can be called additional - they are smaller in size, are located near two gills and are muscular expansions of blood vessels. They help the main organ move blood around the body. Because of the peculiarity of their work, they are also called "gill". They distill venous blood, which is enriched with oxygen in the gills and then enters the atria of the main organ.

Thus, it is possible to distinguish varieties of cardiac organs in octopuses:

  • main;
  • auxiliary.

However miscellaneous work does not affect the frequency of their beating - the octopus has three hearts that beat in the same rhythm. This cannot but cause admiration - 3 hearts of a huge clam, beating in one step. The beat frequency depends on the temperature of the water: colder water the slower the heart beats. On average, the frequency is reduced to 40 times per minute.

The octopus also has only its own blood, which has an amazing blue color, as well as high intelligence proven by many studies. So 3 hearts distill not just blood, but a blue liquid.

Worth mentioning special weapon octopuses - ink bomb. The mollusk has in its body special body- an ink bag filled with a liquid that the octopus throws out in case of danger. As a result, an ink curtain is formed, allowing you to hide from any enemy that might attack the octopus.

Giant octopus (video)

Attention, only TODAY!

Mechanisms of blood pumping

Before talking about breathing itself, I would like to touch on the topic of blood circulation in the human body. Some people, knowing our anatomy and physiology, are convinced that the heart pumps the blood in the body. This is a deep delusion. If you connect a mechanical heart, an apparatus, to a corpse, it will not pump blood.

Turns out, a person has not one but three hearts . When we worked in Kyiv, I gave several lectures at a military institute that studies the heart. A secret military institute is studying the heart - like this interesting activity. And when I gave them a lecture, they came to the conclusion that it was not clear what they had been doing before.

It's believed that first heart in humans (meaning the mechanism of pumping blood) - these are all our cells that make up the cell mass, which tends to constantly move from a state of contraction to a state of relaxation and vice versa. That is, there is a general pulsation in the body. Moreover, equipment has been developed that is designed to analyze this very pulsation in the legs, in the trunk, etc. When the pulsation in the legs is disturbed, thrombophlebitis is provided to you, thanks to the stagnant process. It should be noted that all existing nutritional supplements are designed specifically to activate the pulsation of each cell. The most a big problem is that under the influence external environment our cellular level every year life becomes more and more passive. We vitally need inner activation . When we met with Muldashev (he came to us, and his deputy was trained in our method), it turned out that they had a problem: they are able to grow eyeballs, various other parts for cyborgs, but they don’t know how to make them work. They can grow, but they can’t make the organ function by itself. The starter is missing. It turns out that the problem lies in the fact that each cell must have a starter - an internal pulsation. One of the most important exercises that many systems use and which leads to a general activation of the body's pulsation is auto-training based on sensations of heaviness-lightness. As well as various complications - when you give the installation that the leg or toe has become cold or hot, and vice versa. At the same time, there is a buildup, which powerfully affects the blood circulation of our organs. Unfortunately, almost no one uses such auto-training (especially postoperatively). And this is the basis of Tibetan, Oriental medicine - mental activation of blood circulation with such a pulsation. So here it is the first heart is our cell mass, which determines the energy of blood circulation.


Second heartthis is the bag in which our internal organs and which is in constant dynamics due to diaphragmatic breathing. At the same time, there is a constant massage of the internal organs. One of the most important exercises of various schools, a kind of test - you lie down, and I stand on your stomach, and you breathe. If you can't breathe, then it's time to die. That's an example special technology development of diaphragmatic breathing martial art. We are not talking about martial arts here, we are ordinary normal people, but certain development we simply need diaphragmatic breathing. In those who have certain problems with the shape of the abdomen, especially in women after childbirth, etc., diaphragmatic breathing is disturbed, and immediately powerful impact on the kidneys, on the genitals, on the venous system of the legs, etc. I will talk about this at another lecture (on the setting and movement of arms, legs, etc., on the use of our muscle mass in the development of direct and reverse biological links). Now I'm talking about breathing. I want to emphasize that our breathing is primarily related to our blood circulation .

third heart This is our heart itself. The heart is a tuning fork that adjusts the diaphragmatic rhythm and creates a certain rhythm of the work of our body, the entire cell mass, the cellular level. This is a very delicate mechanism. By the way, I want to note right away that if someone has dominated brain functions, brain activity, then he suppresses his heart, which results in one type of heart disease. If the genitourinary system dominates, suppressing the heart, this is another type of pathology. In both cases, the person will diseased heart but the heart itself has nothing to do with it. It does not act on itself - either the head or the genitourinary system acts on it. Accordingly, it is necessary to deal with either the head or the genitourinary system. And we can treat the heart all our lives. So, when a person knows how to breathe correctly, he creates some dynamics in the whole body, fluctuations in cell mass, and such a person has normal blood circulation. I can visually demonstrate how, with a completely relaxed arm, my veins swell. By influencing the internal organs, I will make a counterflow of blood flow through the veins, and they will expand enormously before your eyes. At the same time, my blood vessels are like those of a baby. I do not specifically practice Hatha yoga or other systems, I only use the so-called yoga Everyday life - a certain minimum of exercise that is needed to maintain homeostasis (balance) in the body . Every full-fledged person needs to have a minimum set of knowledge about full breathing. Full-fledged people (full-fledged, like some animals) in our society are only a few percent, from my point of view. And it is very sad that in kindergartens and schools underdeveloped, excuse me, "guts" are being formed.

There is a certain age schedule for the development of our mass, our organs, systems, therefore if some things are not given to the child in time, then pathology is eventually laid . So I once showed my son that you have to sit in the lotus position, and he sits in the lotus position. He doesn't care, even if it's like that. That is, I made a certain bookmark, and his joints received an impetus to normal development in time. If you start to develop an adult in this way, it can even be dangerous. Sometimes it’s even impossible to do this, because, for example, in a person, the joints will begin to develop well, but the vessels will not develop at the same time - as a result, you can get ruptures, various injuries and other very sad consequences. If I touched on this conversation, then I will immediately give one important picture related to blood circulation.

It is believed that if people find ways to treat all their diseases, then the last problem that remains will be associated with microcapillaries, through which arterial blood passes into venous (Fig. 1). This place of transition is the most weakness in the human body. For example, people with diabetes do not die from diabetes, but because the microcapillaries are clogged. If a person is dominant Bottom part, then the capillaries suffer mainly in the legs, if top part blood flow, then the eyes suffer, etc., up to the brain.

I'll give you an example. There was a very bright case in Kyiv. In our group, 60 doctors were trained at the first stage. We have been preparing them according to a special program for a whole year. The program was supervised by Lyudmila Nikolaevna Kuchma, wife of the president. So, one of our colleagues, a doctor, a very powerful athlete, could freely do push-ups on his fists, well, 250 times, for example. Such an ace athlete. He came from another city, settled in Kyiv, there was a lot of time, and he worked out pumping. We have such an exercise when at a distance of 5-7 meters we do energy pumping. So he worked for 2-3 hours with someone in a pair of this pumping. And then he already comes and says: “Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, I have some kind of tragedy.” What? And all around his body capillaries were torn, there was a hemorrhage. "What's the matter? I’m so strong, healthy, the strongest, the most such, the most, the most ... ”I tell him:“ And you are the weakest in fact. How can it be? And the point is that when athletes work hard exercise, they are these capillaries, which I spoke about, due to stress, they turn from elastic into brittle, rigid. And when from within, due to the technology of “breathing with bones”, a friend began to activate blood circulation, the capillaries, especially on the surface, began to burst. The doctor was simply horrified, and he had to drastically reduce classes.

For us, people who exercise intensively without knowing the bases of drip systems are, in fact, sorry, freaks. All our sports “stars” are disabled. Why? Illiterate development. Unfortunately, real professionals and specialists do not participate in Olympic Games, do not demonstrate their professionalism. When we examined the Spartak team (Zavarzin's team), it turned out that all of them were semi-disabled by diagnostics. And this is our football elite. Football players work hard. Eastern wisdom forms a culture of life, a culture of sports, a culture of martial arts, but here they are squeezing something out of a person. Therefore our talking about breathing technology aims to join the culture of human development . Everyone understands perfectly well that in our life breathing occupies one of the most important places. This was the introductory part.

Breathing technologies in the Archangel Michael system

Now I will talk about respiratory systems: Full breath, Breath of bones, Breath of balls, Breath of thought, Breath of space. All of them belong to the system of the Archangel Michael (Fig. 2).

The Archangel Michael system is presented a seven-pointed star, at the ends of which: the system of Standing a pillar, the system Strong wind, the Five Beasts system, the Drunkard system, the Sleeping God system, the Dragon system, and the Void Presence system. This is the "Star of the Mage" or the basis of the "Dragon" system. T The Bone Breathing technology is related to the Standing Pillar system. Balloon Breathing (inner breathing) technology belongs to the Fast Wind system, Full Breath technology to the Five Beasts system, Thought Breathing technology to the Drunkard system, and Space Breathing to the Sleeping God.

One to help the other

In March 2009, it became known about a unique surgical operation performed at the Heart Institute in São Paulo (Brazil).

A fifty-three-year-old patient, whose heart was already refusing to pump blood, was transplanted into the right side of the chest with a donor heart, leaving his own in the same place. The "new" heart was connected by blood vessels to the "old" one.

It was reported that the operation lasted 12 hours and that the patient's condition was stable. However, doctors expressed concern that the patient had a 50% chance of survival. "The next 72 hours will be decisive," said surgeon Alfredo Fiorelli, who performed the transplant. And he added that in the current situation, a traditional transplant would not be recommended, so the only alternative is to “implant” a second heart and keep the patient in such an artificially created state for about two months. There is hope that the donor heart will still take over the main functions of its own, which will beat more and more slowly ...

There were many questions, however. If everything goes according to plan, will the “main” heart need to be removed later? And where does such confidence come from that it will beat more and more slowly? Or maybe, over time, it will, on the contrary, begin to work normally?

My heart is relaxed and...

It turns out that back in 1996 in London, the famous cardiac surgeon Magdi Yakub transplanted a donor heart to a two-year-old girl Hannah Clark, leaving her own in place. At that time, due to cardiomyopathy, it was already twice the usual size, and doctors predicted that in a maximum of a year the heart would not withstand the load. After the operation, the girl had to take medication to suppress the rejection of the donor heart and everything seemed to be going well with Hannah. So 10 years have passed.

However, in 2006, she suddenly began this same rejection reaction. The donor heart had to be urgently removed and tried to connect his own. Surgeons have never done anything like this before. They were advised by the same Magdy Yakub, already retired. And then the surprises began!

Instead of 8 hours, the operation took 4; instead of several months, Hannah spent in the ward intensive care only 5 days. She quickly recovered and soon even began to dream of some kind of sports competition. It turns out that the girl’s own heart has had a good rest over the years, gained strength and “learned” to work normally. The donor "double" became simply superfluous, so the body began to reject it!

Two in one

But it happens that a person is born with two hearts. Back in 1905, the thirty-five-year-old American carpenter A. Durr placed an announcement in one of the newspapers that he was ready to bequeath his body and his two hearts to someone who would immediately pay him good money. Durr was a big man, which was confirmed by the experts, and one even offered 10 thousand dollars for the right to remove one of the two hearts while alive. But the carpenter refused, fearing that he would not have time to enjoy this money if something went wrong.

In Russia, too, they have known about this phenomenon for a long time. In 1911, a reference book on surgery was published in Yekaterinburg, in which there is a diagram with the caption: “The Ognivtsev phenomenon. A man with two hearts." But who is he, this Vladimir Ognivtsev? So, a rural paramedic, whose fate is not even really known.

But in January 2004 Russian newspapers told about a resident of Ingushetia from the village of Inarki, Malgobek district. Until the age of forty-seven, Zyaudin Yandiev did not even think that he had two hearts. And although some doctor told him this as a child, Zyaudin soon forgot about the second heart. He served in the army, worked, visited doctors more than once, but no one noticed an amazing anomaly, out of habit applying a stethoscope to the left side of his chest. And only in 2003, when he ended up in a hospital with blood poisoning, “the cardiologist literally jumped in surprise when, during a cardiogram, one of the electrodes abruptly moved to the right side and froze,” recalls 3. Yandiev. Here he was examined in full!

One is good, but two is better!

Note that in most cases these phenomenal people do not even know for years that they have two hearts. Why? Because they don’t go to doctors - good health. Even if the second heart is not in place. Thus, in July 2004, doctors in Tbilisi examined one year old baby Gogu Diasamidze from Batumi: he has one heart chest, and the second in abdominal cavity. But even in this case, the body has adapted!

There is also a known case in Ukraine, when a “tumor” was found in a fifty-year-old man, which actually turned out to be a second heart! This man had never gone to the doctors before - everything was in order with his health.

In general, it seems that the body "does not mind" two hearts! Moreover, a child with a "spare" heart grows more resilient and strong, it is easier to cope with physical activity(and there is something for biologists, geneticists, futurologists to think about).

But, in this case, why did not nature take care of duplicating this most important organ in the course of evolution for all of us? After all, we have two lungs, kidneys or eyes! And the heart is one. And the power of this "pump" is not so great. He is able to push blood into all vessels down to the smallest capillaries, of which we have 100-160 billion in the body, but it is difficult for him to deliver venous blood back. But it turns out that numerous “mini-hearts” scattered throughout our body help the heart to push the blood. These are muscles.

According to Nikolai Arinchin, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, we have 1008 such "hearts" (according to the number of skeletal muscles). And if the muscles become decrepit, the heart becomes very hard. Moral: if you want to live - help your heart, train all your muscles!

Genes and chromosomes?

Recently, Elvira Chernikova began to look for her cousin. Her aunt Valentina Dedyukhina once had a son weighing 4.5 kg in Irkutsk - a healthy and strong baby. The gynecologist who delivered the baby said, however, that the child was not viable because he had two hearts and persuaded the woman to write a refusal. After that, both the child and that gynecologist (childless, by the way) disappeared from the hospital - maybe the doctor adopted the baby. And after some time, my sister Dedyukhina also had a son with two hearts. “Now he is an adult,” says Elvira, “his heart works like a clock, the rhythm is clear and strong. So we decided to look: maybe our cousin will be found somewhere in Irkutsk?

This is what happens? "Family" phenomenon? Maybe some recessive (ancient) gene worked for both sisters? Maybe once all our ancestors had two hearts? It is no coincidence that a human embryo also has two hearts at first, but then they combine into one (the eyes, by the way, are the opposite: at first the embryo has one eye, then it divides into two).

Susana Kachel, an anthropologist at Rutgers University, argues that the one-heart, two-lung system began about 300 million years ago, when aquatic radishes first began to crawl onto land (by the way, the octopus still has three hearts). And, perhaps, it is no coincidence that the human embryo at first resembles a fish, an amphibian, and only much later - a mammal, which in the course of evolution replaced each other until they turned into Homo sapiens? And our genetic memory is still no, no, and it will give out two hearts - so to speak, "in the old fashioned way"!

Have questions?

Report a typo

Text to be sent to our editors: