Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Warm-blooded is an informal term referring to animal species whose bodies maintain a temperature higher than that of their environment. In particular, homeothermic species (including birds and mammals ) maintain a stable body temperature by regulating metabolic processes.
Cold-blooded is an informal term for one or more of a group of characteristics that determine an animal's thermophysiology. These include: Ectothermy, controlling body temperature through external processes, such as by basking in the sun; Poikilothermy, the ability of an organism to function over a wide internal temperature range
An ectotherm (from the Greek ἐκτός (ektós) "outside" and θερμός (thermós) "heat"), more commonly referred to as a "cold-blooded animal", [1] is an animal in which internal physiological sources of heat, such as blood, are of relatively small or of quite negligible importance in controlling body temperature. [2]
Warm-blooded animals could have gained an advantage by creating an inhospitable environment for many disease-causing organisms, thus reducing the risk of infections. Insulation and Thermoregulation : Homeothermy could have originated as a response to the development of insulating structures like fur, feathers, or other coverings.
Dinosaurs were initially cold-blooded, but global warming 180 million years ago may have triggered the evolution of warm-blooded species, a new study found.
But scientists observed differences between the two big groups of dinosaurs, finding that Triceratops were cold-blooded and T-Rex warm-blooded.
In equatorial climates and during temperate summers, overheating (hyperthermia) is as great a threat as cold. In hot conditions, many warm-blooded animals increase heat loss by panting, which cools the animal by increasing water evaporation in the breath, and/or flushing, increasing the blood flow to the skin so the heat will radiate into the ...
Ectotherms use external sources of temperature to regulate their body temperatures. They are colloquially referred to as cold-blooded despite the fact that body temperatures often stay within the same temperature ranges as warm-blooded animals. Ectotherms are the opposite of endotherms when it comes to regulating internal temperatures.