Arterial channels- supply most organs with oxygenated blood 4.
4. Fundamentally, the embryo of a higher animal form never resembles the adult of another
Although they carry deoxygenated blood to respiratory organs
Major Arterial channels consists of:
 Ventral Aorta- paired early in embryologenesis
-emerging from the heart and passing forward beneath the pharynx
 Dorsal Aorta- paired above the pharynx only
-extending caudad in the roof of the coelom
 Six pairs of aortic arches- connecting the ventral aorta with the dorsal aorta
(branches of these major channels supply all parts of the body)
AORTIC ARCHES AND VON BAER’S LAW
aortic arches- are a series of six paired embryological vascular structures which give rise to
several major arteries.
-They are ventral to the dorsal aorta.
Arches 1 and 2
The first and second arches disappear early, but the dorsal end of the second
gives origin to the stapedial artery, a vessel which atrophies in humans but
persists in some mammals.
Arch 3
The third aortic arch constitutes the commencement of the internal carotid
artery, and is therefore named the carotid arch.
Arch 4
The fourth right arch forms the right subclavian as far as the origin of its
internal mammary branch; while the fourth left arch constitutes the arch of
the aorta between the origin of the left carotid artery and the termination of
the ductus arteriosus.
Arch 5
The fifth arch disappears on both sides.
Arch 6
The sixth right arch disappears; the sixth left arch gives off the pulmonary
arteries and forms the ductus arteriosus; this duct remains pervious during
the whole of fetal life, but then closes within the first few days after birth due
to increased O2 concentration.
Von Baer’s LAW
Baer's laws (embryology)
He formulated what would later be called Baer's laws of embryology:
1. General characteristics of the group to which an embryo belongs develop before special
characteristics.
2. General structural relations are likewise formed before the most specific appear.
3. The form of any given embryo does not converge upon other definite forms but, on the
contrary, separates itself from them.
animal form, such as one less evolved, but only its embryo.
-the development of the six aortic arches in all vertebrate embryos and the systematic
modification or elimination of first one vessel and then another in successively higher
vertebrates is an example of Von Baer’s Law
Dorsal aorta
-in the head & pharyngeal region;
-paired in embryos and frequently in adults, sometimes disguise under the names
such as internal carotid(in which blood flows to the brain) and ductus caroticus.
-of the trunk;
-unpaired.
-gives off a segmental series of paired somatic branches to the body wall and
appendages, and a series of paired and unpaired visceral branches.
-continues into the tail as caudal artery.
SOMATIC BRANCHES
Subclavian arteries-enlarged segmental arteries
embryos
 arise as branches of the paired and unpaired dorsal aortas or from the third
aortic arches (some birds)
mammals
 arise from fourth aortic arches close to the aorta
(vertebral artery is not well developed in birds and some reptiles)
-series of paired segmental arteries from the aorta along the length of the trunk. This gives off
short dorsally directed vertebromascular branches to the epaxial muscle, skin, and vertebral
column, and long parietal branches.
In amniotes; parietals are called intercostal arteries. Lumbar and sacral arteries are
parietals in those regions
-segmentals in the neck may come off the vertebral arteries.
Iliacs- are segmental arteries that supply the pelvic fins and limbs.
In tetrapods;iliac becomes the femoral, where it follows the femur, popliteal in the
knee, and tibial in the shank.
Visceral arteries
 Series of unpaired visceral branches (splanchnic vessels) pass via dorsal mesenteries
to the unpaired viscera, chiefly digestive organs, suspended in the coelom.
 Paired viscerla branches of the aorta- include arteries to the urinary bladder,
reproductive tract, gonads, kidneys, and adrenals.
  Series of gonads and renal arteries occur in lower vertebrates, several pairs in reptiles
and birds, and usually a single pair in mammals.

Allantoic arteries of amniotes

 Early embryonic dorsal aorta of amniotes ends at the level of the future
hind limbs by bifurcating into right and left allantoic (umbilical)
arteries that carry blood to the allantois
 Internal iliacs-sprout off the umbilical arteries as development
progress, and the umbilicals finally become branches of external and
internal iliacs.
Coronary arteries
- the vessels that deliver oxygen-rich blood to the myocardium

(coronary veins- the vessels that remove the deoxygenated blood from the heart
muscle. Vessels in the heart are coronary arteries and veins.)

 In elasmobranchs; coronary arteries arise from hypobranchial arteries that

receive aerated blood from several arterial loops around the gill chambers.
 In frogs; arise from carotid arch.
 In reptiles and birds; they arise from the aortic trunk leading to the right
fourth arch, or from the brachiocephalic.
 In mammals; arise from the base of the ascending aorta just beyond the
semilunar valves.
 In few vertebrates (including urodeles); the coronary supply consists of
many small arteries.
Anastomoses- junction of two arteries of the coronary circulation, dual blood flow to a certain
area of the myocardium occurs

Retia Mirabilia (rete mirabile-singular)

-“wonderful networks”

-is a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other, found in some vertebrates.
-utilizes countercurrent blood flow within the net (blood flowing in opposite directions.)
-exchanges heat, ions, or gases between vessel walls so that the two bloodstreams within the
rete maintain a gradient with respect to temperature, or concentration of gases or solutes.
-found in the head on the carotid arteries of a variety of vertebrates.
-modulate blood pressure within the brain or other organs of the head.
-pseudobranch of squalus acanthias is a rete.(probably regulates the blood pressure within the
eyeball)