• Question: does anything have more than 1 heart?

    Asked by evgque to Cristina, Gemma, Loan, Michael, Praveen on 17 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Gemma Barron

      Gemma Barron answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      Hi @evgque,
      Thank you for your interesting question. Yes, there are a few creatures with more than one heart. They are: an octopus (they have 3 hearts in total – one normal heart and two ‘gill hearts’ that force blood to the gills), an Earthworm (although an earthworm does not technically have a heart, it does have an aortic arch which performs a similar function to a heart and is, therefore, referred to as a heart for simplicity. An earthworm has 5 aortic arches/hearts that pump blood throughout its body) and, finally, a Hagfish (they have 4 hearts – one main normal heart and 3 heart accessory pumps). Also, rarely humans can have more than one heart if they undergo a ‘piggyback heart transplant operation’. This operation adds an extra heart as opposed to removing and replacing the original heart. The original heart will continue to work but at a much lower level and the transplant heart takes over. This procedure can also be reversed which is fascinating. I hope that answers your question. Thanks, Gemma

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