LIFE PROCESSES

TRANSPORTATION IN ANIMALS
o Transportation can be defined as the movement of any substance from
one place to another.
o Water and nutrients required for all metabolic activities should be
transported in the body of plants and animals.
o The waste material or excretory products should also move to the
region of excretion.
o Transportation in animal takes place through circulatory system which
includes blood, blood vessels and heart.
o Blood is a fluid connective tissue consists of fluid medium called
plasma.
o Functions of blood are to transport food, oxygen, carbon dioxide,
nitrogenous wastes, salts.
o A pumping organ is necessary to push the blood around the body.
o Heart is the muscular pumping organ which pushes the blood around
the body.
o Tube like structure through which carry blood to cells, tissues and
organs are called as blood vessels.
o Two special blood vessels are arteries and veins.
o After reaching the organs, the arteries divide in to small branches called
as capillaries.
o Heart in another component of circulatory system which is also known
as pumping organ.
o Heart consists of four chambers separated by a partition to avoid mixing
of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood

HEART
o Heart is the muscular pumping organ which pushes the blood around
the body.
o Blood transports carbon dioxide to the lungs for oxygen from the cells
for removal and carries oxygen from the lungs to the heart and heart
pump the blood to all the cells of the body.
o Heart has different chambers such as right atrium, left atrium, right
ventricle, left ventricle to prevent the mixing of oxygenated blood and
carbon dioxide rich blood.
o The thin walled upper chamber, left atrium, relaxes and oxygenated
blood enters it.
o Left atrium then contracts and the next chamber left ventricle, expands
and thus blood enters it.
o When the left ventricle contracts the blood is pumped out to all the cells
of the body.
o Deoxygenated blood from the body reaches the right upper chamber,
right atrium when it expands.
o As the right atrium contacts, the lower chamber, right ventricle, dilates.

Fig. Human heart

o Separation of right and left side of heart allows efficient supply of
oxygen to the body and useful for animals that have high energy needs
to maintain their body temperature.
o In some animals, body temperature depends on the temperature in the
environment and thus they do not use energy to maintain body
temperature.
o Amphibians and reptiles have three chambered heart and allows some
mixing of oxygen and deoxygenated blood.
o Fishes have two chambered heart and the blood is pumped to the gills
for oxygenation and transported directly to all the cells of the body.
o When blood goes through the heart twice during each cycle, the
process is called as double circulation.
o In fish, blood goes only once through the heart and thus fish shows
single circulation.
BLOOD VESSELS
o Blood vessels are the tube like structures which carry the blood through
cells, tissues and organs.
o Two types of blood vessels are arteries and veins which are connected
to the heart for transporting blood.
o Arteries –
o Carry blood rich in oxygen from the heart to all the cells of the body.
o The pressure exerted by the arteries while blood leave heart is rapid
and thus wall walls of arteries are thick.
o Veins –
o Veins carry blood rich in carbon di oxide from all the cells of the body to
the heart.
o The pressure exerted by the walls of the veins is less and have thin
walls.
o Valves present in the veins ensure that the blood flows only towards the
heart.
Fig. Flow of blood through blood vessels, arteries is colored red and veins are blue
connected to the heart  

o The arteries divide in to extremely small thin branches on reaching the

tissues. These small branches are called as capillaries.
o Capillaries have walls and are one-cell thick through which the
exchange of materials between the blood and surrounding cells take
place across his thin wall.

Fig. On reaching the eye, arteries divided into capillaries

PLATELETS
o Platelets are the colorless tiny blood cells without nucleus, circulate
through the blood stream.
o During injury, the bleeding needs to minimize naturally.
o Leakage of blood can also reduce the efficiency of the pumping system
due to the loss of pressure.
o Platelet cells are present in the body to plug the leaks and to stop
bleeding by clotting the blood at the points of injury.
o Platelets circulate around the body and clot the blood whenever
wherever necessary.

LYMPH
o Lymph is another fluid involved in transportation.
o Some amount of plasma, proteins and blood cells escape into the
intercellular spaces in the tissues to form lymph or tissue fluid.
o Lymph is similar to blood plasma but colorless and contains less
protein.
o Lymph drains into lymphatic capillaries which join to form large lymph
vessels and which open into larger veins.
o Function of lymph is to carry absorbed digested fat from intestine and it
also drains excess fluid from extra cellular space back into the blood.
Composition of lymph
1) Water

2) Solids: The solid content found in the lymph is as follows:

o Proteins: Three varieties of proteins are found–albumin, globulin and

fibrinogen.
o Fats

o Carbohydrates

o Other Constituents: Urea,creatinine, chlorides, inorganic phosphorus,

calcium, enzymes and antibodies are also present.
Functions of Lymph
1) It supplies nutrition and oxygen to those parts where blood cannot reach.

2) It drains away excess tissue fluids.

3 Lymph returns proteins to the blood from the tissue spaces.

4) Fats from the intestine are also absorbed through the lymph.

5) The lymphocytes and monocytes of lymph act as defensive cells of the

body.

6) The lymph also removes bacteria from tissues.

Fig. lymphatic system