Warm Blooded Vs. Cold Blooded Animals Term Paper

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Warm-blooded vs. Cold-Blooded Animals

Most animals can be classified as either warm-blooded or cold-blooded. For example, all mammals and birds are warm-blooded, while all reptiles, amphibians, insects and fish are cold-blooded. As the owner of a leopard gecko, which is cold blooded, and a dog, which is warm-blooded, I chose this topic for my essay because I wanted to understand exactly what it means to be warm-blooded or cold-blooded, and how these creatures differ.

Basically, the temperature of an animal's blood is directly related to its body temperature. Warm-blooded creatures keep the inside of their bodies at a consistent temperature by generating their own body heat when they are in a cold environment, and cooling their body heat down when they are in a hot place. In order to create heat, warm-blooded animals transform all consumed food into energy. In comparison to cold-blooded animals, warm-blooded animals must eat a lot of food, in order to maintain a consistent body temperature. While they convert some of the food into body mass, the majority of the food is used to maintain their body temperature.

Warm-blooded animals have different ways of changing their body temperatures. They often sweat or pant to give off heat through water evaporation, or stay in cool areas or the water when they need to cool down. Warm-blooded mammals, with the exception of whales, have sweat glands, unlike cold-blooded animals, that enable them to cool down. Warm-blooded animals usually also have fur, hair, feathers or blubber, to keep them warm when needed.

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When the weather turns cooler, some animals shed their fur or hair, to adjust the climate changes. Warm-blooded animals also have the ability to shiver, if they need to get warmer.

Cold-blooded creatures assume the temperature of their environment. When it is hot, they are hot, and when it is cold, they are cold, too. Oddly, cold-blooded animals can have warmer blood than warm-blooded animals when it is hot. Due to the fact that cold-blooded animals depend on chemical reactions to fuel their muscle activity, cold-blooded animals tend to be more active in hotter weather. Basically, this is because chemical reactions run faster when it is hot. A cold-blooded animal can convert a greater amount of its food into body mass than a warm-blooded animal can.

Cold-blooded animals can often be found lounging in the sun, when they want to get warmer and increase their energy. Many reptiles instinctively know to lie vertical to the direction of the sun in order to take complete advantage of the sun's warmth. Many reptiles also expand their rib cage to extend their bodies or darken their skin to attract more heat. If a reptile becomes too hot, it will change its direction, find shady area, or lighten….....

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