Tetrapod probably had a three-chambered heart, as do modern amphibians and reptiles, in which oxygenated blood from the lungs and de-oxygenated blood from the respiring tissues enters by separate atria, and is directed via a spiral valve to the appropriate vessel — aorta for oxygenated blood and pulmonary vein for deoxygenated blood. The spiral valve is essential to keeping the mixing of the two types of blood to a minimum, enabling the animal to have higher metabolic rates, and be more active than otherwise. The difference in density between air and water causes smells (certain chemical compounds detectable by chemoreceptors) to
Tail vein Tail vein Tail vein or caudal vein is the largest vein in vertebrate animals' tail. It leads directly into the posterior cardinal vein in the posterior trunk in fishes. Mammal caudal vein (the middle caudal vein) leads to inferior vena cava. Caudal vein is one of the many places from which a laboratory worker can withdraw blood from a mouse specimen. The process does not require the death of the mouse, that is, assuming that not too much more than the established standard of "no more than two blood samples are taken per session and in any one 24-hour period.".