The evolution of mechanisms involved in vertebrate endothermy.

ABSTRACT: Endothermy, i.e. the endogenous production of metabolic heat, has evolved multiple times among vertebrates, and several strategies of heat production have been studied extensively by physiologists over the course of the twentieth century. The independent acquisition of endothermy by mammals and birds has been the subject of many hypotheses regarding their origin and associated evolutionary constraints. Many groups of vertebrates, however, are thought to possess other mechanisms of heat production, and alternative ways to regulate thermogenesis that are not always considered in the palaeontological literature. Here, we perform a review of the mechanisms involved in heat production, with a focus on cellular and molecular mechanisms, in a phylogenetic context encompassing the entire vertebrat

SUBMITTER: Legendre LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7017440 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature