Question

Maintenance of a relatively high and stable body temperature is considered a hallmark of endothermy. How is it achieved and supported? Endothermy comes with considerable benefits, but also at a steep cost. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being endothermic? Explain in detail. Provide a hypothetical scenario (including specific physiologic modifications) how endothermy might have evolved in a vertebrate taxon from an ectothermic ancestor

Answer 1

Endothermic animals are those whose body temperature is maintained, stable & relatively high body temperature. Warm blooded animals (birds & mammals) are the endothermic animal. To sustain their body temperature, the metabolism rate in the endotherms is high. Presence of higher number of mitochondria per cell in some endotherms produce heat by increasing catabolism rate and the foods are mainly sugar, fat. For the higher rate of metabolism the endotherms need more energy as well as more food. So foods are taken in a short time gap as compared to ectotherms to maintain the rate of metabolism. The inactivity has the effect on the body temperature, human's body temperature slightly decrease at night during the sleeping time,the nocturnal animal 's body temperature decreases in day time.

Advantages

The endotherms has a stable body temperature so despite of the location and weather change, the enzyme activity is optimum.

Endotherms can sustain metabolic activities for a long time than ectothermic animals.

The high temperature protect endotherms from fungal infection.

Disadvantages

For the necessity of high volume of food, the carrying capacity of endotherms is lower.

As the dependency on food is higher in endotherms than ectotherms, they don't survive for long periods in starvation as compared to ectotherms.

Movement or speed of endotherms is much slower in respect of ectotherms.