Final answer:
A four-chambered heart has the advantage of separating oxygenated and deoxygenated blood more efficiently, which supports more active and energetic lifestyles by ensuring that body tissues receive a consistent supply of oxygen-rich blood.
Step-by-step explanation:
One advantage of a four-chambered heart over a three-chambered heart is that a four-chambered heart separates oxygenated and deoxygenated blood more efficiently. This separation is essential for efficient movement of oxygen throughout the body, especially in warm-blooded animals like mammals and birds. Due to the dual pumping action, all the blood flowing to the body cells from the four chambers is rich in oxygen, enabling a more active lifestyle required by these animals. This separation allows the body to perform vigorous activities when necessary by ensuring a consistent supply of oxygenated blood.
Compared with the three-chambered heart of amphibians, where there is some mixing of the oxygenated and deoxygenated blood, the four-chambered system greatly reduces this mixture, resulting in the more efficient oxygenation of blood. In mammals and birds, we observe the phenomenon of convergent evolution, where the four-chambered system evolved independently to suit their energetic demands.