https://theconversation.com/we-solved-th...ded-163774
EXCERPTS: For over 50 years now, scientists have known that, despite their reputation, not all fish are cold-blooded. Some shark and tuna species, the white shark and the Atlantic bluefin tuna, have evolved the ability to warm parts of their bodies, such as their muscle, eyes and brain.
[...] It turns out that warm-blooded fish can swim 1.6 times faster than cold-blooded fish. This is some of the first direct evidence of the evolutionary advantage of being warm-blooded.
This extra speed provides advantages when it comes to things like predation and migration. It’s likely that this makes them better hunters or travellers. The faster swim speeds also aid the fish in identifying prey. The quicker they swim, the faster an image moves across their eye, allowing them to process and identify the image – perhaps of prey – faster than slower counterparts.
It has previously been suggested that these warm-blooded fishes may be better able to deal with changing ambient temperatures by stabilising their body temperatures. This would be useful under current climate change scenarios, such as global ocean warming.
That may be the case, but our results indicate the ability to warm their bodies doesn’t allow them to occupy a broader temperature or depth ranges. This means we may have been overstating the resilience warm-blooded fish have for facing changing ocean temperatures... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: For over 50 years now, scientists have known that, despite their reputation, not all fish are cold-blooded. Some shark and tuna species, the white shark and the Atlantic bluefin tuna, have evolved the ability to warm parts of their bodies, such as their muscle, eyes and brain.
[...] It turns out that warm-blooded fish can swim 1.6 times faster than cold-blooded fish. This is some of the first direct evidence of the evolutionary advantage of being warm-blooded.
This extra speed provides advantages when it comes to things like predation and migration. It’s likely that this makes them better hunters or travellers. The faster swim speeds also aid the fish in identifying prey. The quicker they swim, the faster an image moves across their eye, allowing them to process and identify the image – perhaps of prey – faster than slower counterparts.
It has previously been suggested that these warm-blooded fishes may be better able to deal with changing ambient temperatures by stabilising their body temperatures. This would be useful under current climate change scenarios, such as global ocean warming.
That may be the case, but our results indicate the ability to warm their bodies doesn’t allow them to occupy a broader temperature or depth ranges. This means we may have been overstating the resilience warm-blooded fish have for facing changing ocean temperatures... (MORE - missing details)