Gut reaction by heartless shrimps: experimental evidence for the role of the gut in generating circulation before cardiac ontogeny.

Before the appearance of a functional heart in many invertebrate species, the assumption was that general body movements provide circulatory function. Consequently, I investigated the frequency of gut movements in the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana, immediately post-hatch to the point when a functional heart appeared. Prior to cardiac ontogeny, movements of internal musculature and gut provided pre-cardiac circulatory currents with the rate of gut movements increasing when swimming limbs were impeded. There was also some evidence that gut movements were responsive to low oxygen, indicating a possible regulatory function for the gut in early circulation. Overall, this suggests that general body movements are not always adequate to provide internal circulation in small, heartless individuals.