BIOL 1602 Lecture Notes - Ectotherm, Testicle, Thermoregulation
Document Summary
As they get warmer, they run and digest more quickly, tire more slowly, and poorly hear more keenly. Vast majority of organisms are ectothermic, means that their body temperatures are determine by the temperatures of their environments. Body temperature has a profound effect on an ectotherm"s physiological performance. Desert iguanas can survive short exposures to body temperatures as low as 0 c and as high as about 47 c: they can only function between about 15 c - 45 c. Within this range, cold iguanas run and digest slowly, tire quickly, and hear. The relationship between physiological performance and temperature is called a thermal performance curve. Given the sensitivity of physiological function to temperature, we can predict that ectotherms. Ectotherms should move around in the environment so as to maintain themselves at or near the will exhibit behavioural thermoregulation temperature at which they perform the best.