ectotherm
1
8.7
- noun
- /ˈɛktoʊˌθɜrm/
- Specialized
:
ectotermo
- Many fish are ectotherms, meaning their body temperature fluctuates with the water they swim in.
Examples
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The absence of a food effect on winter survival and fat content at the end of winter may be explained by the fact that aquatic ectotherms strongly lower their metabolism and food intake during the winter period (Denlinger and Lee 2010), which may lead to no differences in survival and fat content between both food treatments.
Academic text (2018) -
As you can see, that's opposed to something called an ectotherm, which have to get their heat from outside of their bodies from a source like the sun.
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Whereas the insects are actually forced by their small size and their ectotherm status to grow more slowly when it's cold and they're forced to grow more rapidly when it's hot.
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Ectotherms, like lizards and snakes, rely on the temperature of their surroundings to regulate their body heat.
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As ectotherms, frogs and turtles adjust their activity levels according to the environmental temperature.
Synonyms
An animal whose body heat changes with the air or water temperature like fish and reptiles
Antonyms
How Warm-Blooded
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Ectotherm comes from Greek parts ecto- meaning 'outside' and therm meaning 'heat'. So an ectotherm is an animal that uses 'outside heat' to warm its body, like a lizard that sits in the sun.