RT Conference Proceedings
T1 The bulbus arteriosus of the holocephalan heart
A1 Rodríguez, Cristina
A1 Lorenzale, Miguel
A1 Linares, Andrea
A1 López-Unzu, Miguel A.
A1 Sans-Coma, Valentín
A1 Durán, Ana C.
K1 Quimeriformes - Anatomía
AB Previous work has shown that the outflow tract of the elasmobranch heart, namely thecardiac portion intercalated between the ventricle and the ventral aorta, does not consistof a single component, the conus arteriosus, as has classically been assumed, but two,the myocardial conus arteriosus and the non-myocardial bulbus arteriosus. From theevolutionary perspective, knowledge of the anatomy of the cardiac outflow tract of theholocephali is important, as they are the sister group of elasmobranchs. Our aim is todescribe the cardiac outflow tract of four holocephalan species, two of them, Chimaeramonstrosa and Hydrolagus affinis of the family Chimaeridae, and the other two, Harriottaraleighana and Rhinochimaera atlantica, of the family Rhinochimaeridae. The cardiacoutflow tract of the four species consisted of a myocardial conus arteriosus, furnishedwith valves, and a bulbus arteriosus devoid of cardiac muscle. Both the bulbus andconus are tubular in shape. The length of the bulbus relative to the total length of theoutflow tract is somewhat smaller in the rhinochimaerids (15%-19%) than in thechimaerids (19%-23%). The bulbus is covered by epicardium and is crossed by the maincoronary artery trunks. Histologically, the bulbus is mainly composed of elastin andcollagen, and, to a lesser extent, by smooth muscle. This suggests that inholocephalans, the bulbus actively helps to protect the gill vasculature from exposure tohigh-pressure pulses of blood. Our results prove that the bulbus arteriosus is common tochondrichthyans. In addition, they support the hypothesis that the cardiac outflow tractconsisted of a conus arteriosus and a bulbus arteriosus from the beginning of the jawedvertebrate radiation, contributing to our understanding of the morphological changes thathave occurred at the arterial pole of the heart in both actinopterygians andsarcopterygians.
YR 2013
FD 2013-07-25
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10630/5655
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10630/5655
LA eng
NO El resumen aparece en el Program & Abstracts of the 10th International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology, Barcelona 2013.Anatomical Record, Volume 296, Special Feature — 1: P-074.
NO Proyecto CGL2010-16417/BOS; Fondos FEDER
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 1 mar 2026