Homeostasis- Ectotherms

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Ectotherms are organisms that have no thermal insulation and so need external sources to warm themselves up. They can’t shiver to warm up because they’re unable to respire fast enough to make the amount of ATP required for rapid muscle contractions. Instead, ectotherms, like reptiles, rely on thermoregulatory behaviour.  

The main advantage of being an ectotherm is that they don’t use and therefore don’t need as much energy as endotherms. It's possible for ectothermic animals to survive weeks without consuming anything. They have a much slower metabolic rate which drops even further at night when their internal core temperature drops with the colder surrounding temperature.

The disadvantage is, however, that they move more slowly at certain times of the

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