Like the respiratory system, the circulatory system serves to transport oxygen throughout the body while removing carbon dioxide. In addition, the circulatory system transports nutrients from the digestive system.

An exoskeleton (external skeleton) is common in arthropods like insects, spiders, and crustaceans.

The heart is the organ that drives the circulatory system. In humans, it consists of four chambers with two that collect blood called atria and two that pump blood called ventricles. The heart's valves prevent blood pumped out of the ventricles from flowing back into the heart.

Primary consumers (herbivores) subsist on producers like plants and fungus. Examples are grasshoppers, cows, and plankton.

Tough fibrous cords of connective tissue called tendons connect muscles to the skeleton while another type of connective tissue called ligaments connect bones to other bones at joints (elbow, knee, fingers, spinal column).