page_title: Thermoregulation
section_title: Ectothermic heating (or minimizing heat loss)
hierarchical_section_title: Thermoregulation / Classification of animals by thermal characteristics / Ectothermic heating (or minimizing heat loss)
caption_attribution_description: Thermogram of a snake wrapped around a human arm
context_page_description: Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation. The internal thermoregulation process is one aspect of homeostasis: a state of dynamic stability in an organism's internal conditions, maintained far from thermal equilibrium with its environment. If the body is unable to maintain a normal temperature and it increases significantly above normal, a condition known as hyperthermia occurs. Humans may also experience lethal hyperthermia when the wet bulb temperature is sustained above 35 °C for six hours. The opposite condition, when body temperature decreases below normal levels, is known as hypothermia. It results when the homeostatic control mechanisms of heat within the body malfunction, causing the body to lose heat faster than producing it. Normal body temperature is around 37 °C, and hypothermia sets in when the core body temperature gets lower than 35 °C.
context_section_description: Convection:
  Climbing to higher ground up trees, ridges, rocks.
  Entering a warm water or air current.
  Building an insulated nest or burrow.
  Conduction:
  Lying on a hot surface.
  Radiation:
  Lying in the sun (heating this way is affected by the body's angle in relation to the sun).
  Folding skin to reduce exposure.
  Concealing wing surfaces.
  Exposing wing surfaces.
  Insulation:
  Changing shape to alter surface/volume ratio.
  Inflating the body.
  To cope with low temperatures, some fish have developed the ability to remain functional even when the water temperature is below freezing; some use natural antifreeze or antifreeze proteins to resist ice crystal formation in their tissues. Amphibians and reptiles cope with heat loss by evaporative cooling and behavioral adaptations. An example of behavioral adaptation is that of a lizard lying in the sun on a hot rock in order to heat through radiation and conduction.
caption: Thermographic image of a snake around an arm
exif: {}