“…It is a common view that the anlage of the common orifice of the pulmonary veins, the so‐called pulmonary pit, is a solitary unpaired structure. Matters of dispute, however, remain: first, the question as to whether the pulmonary pit arises either from the primitive embryonic atrium (Born, 1889; Neill, 1956; Van Praagh and Corsini, 1969; Goor and Lillehei, 1975; Los, 1978; Webb et al, 1998, 2000, 2001; Soufan et al, 2004; Anderson et al, 2006), as usually described in the textbooks, or from the sinus venosus (Fedorow, 1910; Brown, 1913; Buell, 1922; DeRuiter et al, 1995; Tasaka et al, 1996; Blom et al, 2001), and, second, the question as to whether the pulmonary pit originally has a midline identity (Brown, 1913; Auër, 1948; Van Praagh and Corsini, 1969; Webb et al, 1998; Wessels et al, 2000; Jongbloed et al, 2004) or a left‐sided identity (Born, 1889; Neill, 1956; Goor and Lillehei, 1975; Los, 1978; Tasaka et al, 1996). In this context, some researchers have presented data that cast doubt on the existence of the sinus venosus as a discrete segment of the heart tube in higher vertebrate embryos.…”