6.6: Body Temperature
- Page ID
- 62162
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Warm-blooded vs cold-blooded
Non-mammals generate body heat, giving examples of a python and some species of fish, such as tuna. A reptile basking in the sun can become as warm to the touch as a mammal. If you've encountered a mammal during hibernation - perhaps a cautious investigation of a hedgehog - you'll probably have found it surprisingly cold to the touch. So in describing what's special about the body temperature of mammals, cold-blooded and warm-blooded are terms best avoided. What makes mammals different is that they have hair on their bodies and can maintain a constant internal body temperature, called endothermic, while other animals must use the sun and shade to heat up or cool down. The ability to keep a constant temperature is called thermoregulation. Some of this is also controlled by metabolism rates.
A coat of profuse mammalian body hair is commonly called fur. Fur provides insulation, which is a property that one first thinks of as useful for mammals to help retain body heat. Fur is a unique and fundamental feature of mammals, though not all living species possess it.