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Warm and Cold Bloodedness



For a long time I have accepted the premise that prolonged physical exertion
is possible only for warm-blooded animals, but I have never understood the
reason why this ought to be true.  If the advantage lies in the muscles being
warm and better able to move, then I would think that warm bloodedness would
be most beneficial for short bursts of speed because the muscles would already
be warm.  This would be irrelevent for prolonged activity because the muscles
would warm themselves.  There must be something beyond the temperature itself
that supports the assertion, but I don't have any idea what it is.

Bart Singer