What does «heterotermo» mean in Spanish?
- Describes vertebrates that have a variable body temperature and thus partially regulate their temperature. In a heterothermic animal, the temperature of their bodies varies more or less with the environmental temperature. Heterothermic is a physiological term for animals that vary between self-regulating their body temperature and allowing the surrounding environment to affect it. In other words, they exhibit characteristics of both poikilothermy (whose internal temperature varies considerably, formerly called cold-blooded) and homeothermy (thermoregulation that maintains a stable internal body temperature independent of external influence, formerly called warm-blooded). It is therefore inappropriate to consider heterotherm as a synonym of poikilotherm, as described in some bibliographies.