https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218153120 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218153120 one notable realization in recent decades has been the role o

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218153120 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218153120 one notable realization in recent decades has been the role of thermophysiological differences among marine vertebrates that plays on their geographic and bathymetric distributions. For example, endothermic taxa can have higher cruising speeds that increase prey encounter rates as well as wider migration ranges compared to their ectothermic counterparts. In fact, endothermy, the ability to metabolically elevate and retain body heat over a broad ambient temperature range, is regarded to have an evolutionary merit as demonstrated by the fact that it evolved multiple times in vertebrate history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoregulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoregulation Thermoregulation in organisms runs along a spectrum from endothermy to ectothermy. Endotherms create most of their heat via metabolic processes and are colloquially referred to as warm-blooded. When the surrounding temperatures are cold, endotherms increase metabolic heat production to keep their body temperature constant, thus making the internal body temperature of an endotherm more or less independent of the temperature of the environment. Endotherms possess a larger number of mitochondria per cell than ectotherms, enabling them to generate more heat by increasing the rate at which they metabolize fats and sugars.