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Information about Gigantothermy

Gigantothermy is a phenomenon with significance in biology and paleontology, whereby large, bulky ectothermic (cold-blooded) animals are more easily able to maintain a constant, relatively high body temperature than smaller animals by virtue of their greater volume to surface area ratio. A bigger animal has proportionately less of its body close to the outside environment than a smaller animal of otherwise similar shape, and so it gains heat from, or loses heat to, the environment much more slowly.

The phenomenon is important in the biology of ectothermic megafauna, such as large turtles (particularly the Leatherback Sea Turtle), dinosaurs, and aquatic reptiles like ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs. It is also present in certain large fish, most notably the great white shark. Gigantotherms, though almost always ectothermic, generally have a body temperature and metabolic rate similar to that of endotherms.

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Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, "life"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge"), also referred to as the biological sciences, is the scientific study of life.
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Palaeontology redirects here. For the scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal).


Paleontology, palaeontology or palæontology (from Greek: paleo, "ancient"; ontos
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For the 1995 movie about hitmen, see .
Cold-blooded organisms maintain their body temperatures in ways different from mammals and birds. The term is now outdated in scientific contexts.
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Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when temperature surrounding is very different. This process is one aspect of homeostasis: a dynamic state of stability between an animal's internal environment and its
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The volume of a solid object is the three-dimensional concept of how much space it occupies, often quantified numerically. One-dimensional figures (such as lines) and two-dimensional shapes (such as squares) are assigned zero volume in the three-dimensional space.
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Area is the measure of how much exposed area any two dimensional object has. It is expressed in square units, and is calculated by adding together the areas of all the faces of the object.

Area formulas

Note: For 2D figures, the surface area and the area are the same.
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Megafauna are species of large animals (Greek μεγας, large, + modern Latin fauna, animal). The standard definition includes animals with an average body weight exceeding 100 lb (44 kg) [1][2][3].
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Testudines
Linnaeus, 1758

Diversity
ca. 300 species in 14 extant families.

blue: sea turtles, black: land turtles


Suborders

Cryptodira
Pleurodira
See text for families.
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Dermochelys
Blainville, 1816

Species: D. coriacea

Binomial name
Dermochelys coriacea
(Vandelli, 1761)

The leatherback turtle (
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Dinosauria *
Owen, 1842

Orders & Suborders
  • Ornithischia
  • Cerapoda
  • Thyreophora
  • Saurischia

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Ichthyosauria
Blainville, 1835

Families
  • Ichthyosauridae
  • Leptonectidae
  • Mixosauridae
  • Ophthalmosauridae
  • Shastasauridae
  • Stenopterygiidae
  • Teretocnemidae
Ichthyosaurs (Greek for 'fish lizard' -
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Mosasauridae
Gervais, 1853

Subfamilies

Halisaurinae
Mosasaurinae
Plioplatecarpinae
Tylosaurinae

Mosasaurs (from Latin Mosa meaning the 'Meuse river' in the Netherlands, and Greek sauros
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Carcharodon
Smith, 1838

Species: C. carcharias

Binomial name
Carcharodon carcharias
(Linnaeus, 1758)


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Metabolism is the complete set of chemical reactions that occur in living cells. These processes are the basis of life, allowing cells to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories.
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The term Endotherm may refer to:
  • A Warm-blooded organism
  • An Endothermic process

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Bergmann's Rule is a principle that correlates environmental temperature with body mass in warm-blooded animals. It asserts that within a species, the body mass increases with latitude and colder climate.
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