Physiologically, what is the difference between cold-blooded vs. warm-blooded animals that makes them unable to regulate their own body temperature?
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Cold blooded animals don’t generate more heat than their normal body requirements. Think of how your lap top gets warm just from being on. Maybe it’ll get even warmer if you make it do something demanding like play a video game. Normal cellular activity on it’s own generates heat. The cold blooded animals don’t spend more calories than needed for their normal cellular activities.
Warm blooded animals do all their normal cellular activity plus even more just to bring the heat up. It’s a lot like running a high end video game in the background on your computer just because you want to heat your room up a bit.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. Warm blooded animals need more calories to raise their heat up, but don’t need to bask in the sun just to get their body going.
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