BIOB34H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Homeothermy, Poikilotherm, Biogeography
Document Summary
Why are they maintaining this particular range of body temperature: enzyme denaturation, reaction rates which are catalyzed by enzymes and at some temperature enzymes will denature. There is a particular temperature that they are able to withstand before they denature. So, mammals and birds have to set their body temperature right around that point: however, there are organisms that have higher body temperatures such as thermophilic bacteria which have body temperatures somewhere between. So, they are able to synthesize enzymes that are able to remain intact even at very high temperatures. In reality, the range of body temperatures that we see in mammals and birds cannot be explained by the idea enzyme denaturation: biogeography. In order to maintain your body temperature, you would need to have a very high metabolic rate to generate heat at a rate matching the high rate at which the heat is being lost from your body.
