ATRIA :

in vertebrates and the higher invertebrates, heart chamber that receives blood into the heart and drives it into a ventricle, or chamber, for pumping blood away from the heart. Fishes have one atrium; amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, two.
In humans the atria are the two upper chambers of the heart. Each is roughly cube-shaped except for an ear-shaped projection called an auricle. (The term auricle has also been applied, incorrectly, to the entire atrium.) The right atrium receives from the veins blood low in oxygen and high in carbon dioxide; this blood is transferred to the right lower chamber, or ventricle, and is pumped to the lungs. The left atrium receives from the lungs blood high in oxygen and low in carbon dioxide; this blood flows into the left ventricle and is pumped through the arteries to the tissues. The major openings in the walls of the right atrium are (1) the points of entrance for the superior and inferior venae cavae (the great veins that return blood from the bodily tissues), and for the coronary sinus, the dilated terminal part of the cardiac vein, bearing venous blood from the heart muscle itself; and (2) the opening into the right ventricle. The principal openings into the left atrium are the points of entry of the pulmonary veins, bringing oxygenated blood from the lungs, and the opening into the left ventricle.

VENTRICLE  :

muscular chamber that pumps blood out of the heart and into the circulatory system. Ventricles occur among some invertebrates. Among vertebrates, fishes and amphibians generally have a single ventricle, while reptiles, birds, and mammals have two.
In humans, the ventricles are the two lower chambers of the heart. The walls of the chambers, and particularly the walls of the left ventricle, are far more heavily muscled than the walls of the atria, or upper chambers (see atrium), because it is in the ventricles that the major force is exerted in the process of pumping the blood to the bodily tissues and to the lungs. Each opening leading into or away from the ventricles is guarded by a valve. These openings are the following: those from the two upper chambers; the opening from the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery, which transports blood to the lungs; and the opening from the left ventricle into the aorta, the main trunk by which oxygen-rich blood starts its course to the tissues. The interior surfaces of the ventricles are ridged with bundles and bands of muscle, called trabeculae carneae. The papillary muscles project like nipples into the cavities of the ventricles. They are attached by fine strands of tendon to the valves between the atria and ventricles and prevent the valves from opening when the ventricles contract.