ECOLOGY
by Purwaning Rohmah/BIO off A 2015 UM
ECTOTHERM AND ENDOTHERM
The
basic difference between ectothermic and endothermic are the thermoregulating
ability and maintaining body temperature.
1. Ectotherms
Ectotherms’
body temperature mainly depends on external heat sources because they has low ability
to produces body heat and easy to losing it (can’t maintain their body
temperature well). The problem is, they need more heat to fulfill their needs
of body temperature to regulate metabolism. Thus, they gain more heat from
environment to fulfill their needs.
They
gain heat from surrounding by another strategies such as behavior—seeking sun
to gain heat, then get into shade to cooling down the body just like what
lizard do—to find environments whose temperature meets their needs. So, their body
temperature rises and falls along with the temperature of the surrounding
environment.
The examples are pisces (fishes), amphibians (frog, toad, etc), and
reptiles (lizard, snake, chameleon etc).
2. Endotherm
Endotherms
are animals that can maintain a fairly constant body temperature under a wide
variety of environmental temperatures from intense heat of desert to freezing
arctic cold. This constant temperature range allows endotherms to survive in a
very broader geographical and ecological area in earth.
All
mammals and birds are endotherms, and they require large energy for production
of heat and cooling processes. Mainly they gain this energy by digestion of the
food they eat. Their body temperatures are mainly controlled by metabolic
processes and also by adaptive mechanisms that control the heat exchange rate
with the surroundings, such as sweating and insulation, panting, reduced blood
pressure to extremities, hibernation, burrowing, nocturnal habit or migration
and decreasing or increasing the ‘surface area to volume’ ratio.
The
example are mammals (cat, hamster, chipmunk, horse etc), and aves (birds, etc).
Cat Duck and Hamster
Chipmunk
The
difference between ectotherm and endotherm:
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