Whole-body endothermy: ancient, homologous and widespread among the ancestors of mammals, birds and crocodylians.

ABSTRACT: The whole-body (tachymetabolic) endothermy seen in modern birds and mammals is long held to have evolved independently in each group, a reasonable assumption when it was believed that its earliest appearances in birds and mammals arose many millions of years apart. That assumption is consistent with current acceptance that the non-shivering thermogenesis (NST) component of regulatory body heat originates differently in each group: from skeletal muscle in birds and from brown adipose tissue (BAT) in mammals. However, BAT is absent in monotremes, marsupials, and many eutherians, all whole-body endotherms. Indeed, recent research implies that BAT-driven NST originated more recently and that the biochemical processes driving muscle NST in birds, many modern mammals and the ancestors of both ma

SUBMITTER: Grigg G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9300183 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature