Lymph heart

A lymph heart is an organ which pumps lymph in lungfishes, amphibians, reptiles, and flightless birds back into the circulatory system. In some amphibian species, lymph hearts are in pairs, and may number as many as 200 in one animal the size of a worm, while newts and salamanders have as many as 16 to 23 pairs of lymph hearts.

Lymph hearts are thought to have evolved in Rhipidistia. Mammals have lost the lymph heart as a centralized organ, instead having the lymph vessel themselves contract to pump lymph.

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