Glossary
Endothermy
Making your own body heat, at five to ten times a cold-blooded animal's oxygen cost. The main jump in the mammal line is currently dated to about 233 million years ago.
Published Updated
Where this comes from
In the reference topic that owns this term
Reference topic 1, The 200-Million-Year Warm-Up, states the mismatch as a card: what the system evolved to expect, what it gets instead, and what happens in the gap.
Mismatch card
- What it expects
High energy costs paid for by effortful foraging; real darkness at night; changing temperatures; food judged by color and smell.
- What it gets
Abundant calories, climate-controlled rooms, bright evenings, engineered food colors.
- What happens in the gap
Sleep and light (Topic 23), temperature (Topic 25), food reward (Topic 11); even the body's thermostat is drifting, for unknown reasons.
Related terms
The argument behind this term, its studies and its notes are in Reference topic 1 of the reference library. The book gives the practical version. Get the book.