What is it about cold blooded animals such as reptiles and amphibians that makes it so that they can’t regulate their own temperature? Doesn’t their metabolism produce heat in the same way that warm blooded animals do?

Question

What is it about cold blooded animals such as reptiles and amphibians that makes it so that they can’t regulate their own temperature? Doesn’t their metabolism produce heat in the same way that warm blooded animals do?

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Answer 1

So evolution is about trade offs. The trade off for mammals, birds and just any warm blooded animal is that you have higher overall mobility, metabolism, and immune system. They will stay (more or less) unchanged regardless of environment and activity. The negative, they need to consume way more calories than a cold blooded animal of a comparable size.

It’s not that they cant produce heat, but they don’t always have additional ways to produce it (like shivering) or ways to insulate (like fat). L

The animal kingdom is super weird, though. I’m sure there are plenty of exceptions to my explaination above