Why Do Octopuses Have Three Hearts? - Science ABC

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Octopuses have three hearts because they transport oxygen using hemocyanin, which is less efficient than hemoglobin at transporting oxygen.

We have a single powerful heart pumping blood throughout our entire body. Most other mammals and animals have a single heart that circulates oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. All these single hearts might not look or function the same, but they get the job done.

Now meet the cephalopods—the squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish (also nautiloids, but we’ll come to them later) living in the sea. They weren’t happy with just one heart, so they went and evolved themselves three. Their three hearts together serve to pump blood throughout their flexible and mostly boneless body to supply oxygen.

Why do they need three hearts instead of the single heart that works for so many others in the animal kingdom?

Octopus
Octopuses are cephalopods. (Photo Credit : Vladimir Wrangel/Shutterstock)

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