BISC 162 Lecture 1: Journal 2 (Bio Lecture)
Document Summary
An organism must generate its own body heat through metabolism in order to be endothermic. This means that regardless of the temperature of the surrounding environment, the endothermic organism can maintain internal homeostasis. More importantly, endothermy gives the animals more endurance and enables the species to survive in cold surroundings by altering the temperature of their body. Additionally, endotherms can swiftly refuel their muscles with energy due to their high metabolism. However, compared to the intake of comparable sized ectotherms, endothermy is energetically very expensive and necessitates a large amount of food to support high metabolic rates. Therefore, ectotherms can support a bigger population of similar-sized ectotherms on the same amount of food than endotherms can on the same amount of food. This simply means that endotherms produce at a much lower rate than ectotherms. In recognition of predation influence, endothermic predators need more prey than ectothermic carnivores do because of the high energy cost of endothermy.
