If you’re looking for mammal heart facts look no further. The hearts of all mammals are nearly identical, both in design and function. If you seriously think about this for a moment it has profound implications in many different areas. The areas it could impact vary from evolutionary science through to medicine.
It’s been known for generations that the heart is the engine room of the body for all mammals. Located within the chest cavity of mammals, if it stops functioning, death is assured. But what our ancestors failed to note, besides obviously recognizing it, was that all mammal hearts are the same. It wasn’t until relatively recently that a study was conducted to investigate it further.
An extensive study that was conducted over 40 years has found that all hearts of mammals are essentially identical. Apart from the obvious size difference, the design and function of hearts, from the smallest mouse to the largest whale are alike.
The study focused mainly on ventricular rate control and rhythm in atrial fibrillation. Over the course of the 40 year study they looked at hearts of many different mammals from different locations all around the world, and found them to be pretty much the same. So what do the results really mean?
Other organs among mammals vary greatly between species. You need only look at the digestive system of cows compared to humans to recognize this difference. The heart being the same among all mammals suggest that it evolved very early on and has not changed for millions of years. The only real change being a scale in size.
As we mentioned earlier in this story bout mammal heart facts, this study and discovery has implications for the medical profession. It will allow for a better understanding of its operation and treatment of heart disease, among other things. For example new medicines could be tested on smaller animals to see if the results will be beneficial to the human heart, and that of other animals such as pets and livestock.
