Animals that are exothermic regulate their body heat using behavioural means and therefore are dependent on external sources of heat. Unlike endothermic organisms that regulate their internal body temperature through chemical reactions and therefore are able to maintain a constant body temperature despite the environmental temperature.
I think you’re a little confused because this process has really nothing to do with digesting certain types of food…. sure endothermic animals tend to have a higher rate of metabolism and therefore need to consume more sugars and fats, but it really doesn’t have much to do with digestion….
I have what I think is about the same question.
According to every biology class I’ve taken so far, some of the heat in an endothermic organism is, essentially, wasted energy. It’s energy that escapes the various biological processes.
The question is, why don’t reptiles do the same? Shouldn’t they have some sort of heat escaping from the same processes? Or do they have the same heat loss, but on a much smaller scale due to a slower metabolism?
Not all endothermic animals lose this “wasted” energy, some use countercurrent exchange to reuse the heat energy, typically animals in cold climates.
Exothermic animals experience heat loss through convection based on the environmental temperature but because they don’t have the internal processes to regulate their own body temperature internally via chemical reactions they don’t lose that heat in the same way endothermic organisms do. So they wouldn’t have the same heat loss.
Still confused as what this has to do with digestion.
I’m assuming the anon meant metabolism and not only digestion?
Regardless, thanks for the explanation.
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