Reptilian Respiration

[rob3]

hey,

I know that warm blooded animals are so because the energy released by the oxidation of glucose is not transerred 100% efficiently to ATP, therefore some is lost as thermal energy. I am slightly confused as to why reptiles are cold blooded, is their repiration process much more efficient than ours? Please explain!

Thanks

Rob

[MrMistery]

no, their respiration has the same 38% efficiency in transferring the energy from glucose to atp, and it releases the rest as heat. the difference is that a reptile has a much slower metabolism and carries out a lot less cellular respiration, so to speak..

[rob3]

Thanks very much; that has made things much clearer. Am I correct in assuming that the reason why less respiration is required to be carried out, is because reptiles usually move about less than warm-blooded mammals?

[Doc44]

Check out the significance of the three chamber heart and nucleated red blood cells in reptiles.

Doc44

Reptiles are cool.

[MrMistery]

no you are not. not exactly at least. there are some very active reptiles, like desert snakes that move continuosly during the day cause they can't stand the hot sun. the only difference is that reptiles do not get their heat from cellular respiration, they get it from the sun
caution: cold-blooded doesn't mean it has cold blood, it means it does not have an "internat heat generator"

[rob3]

I thought that high body heat (e.g. mammals) was caused by inefficient transfer of energy during respiration and is entirely a passive process. Is energy actively used to produce heat?

[sachin]

I thought that high body heat (e.g. mammals) was caused by inefficient transfer of energy during respiration and is entirely a passive process. Is energy actively used to produce heat?

For Mammals thats Right.

[Darby]

The nucleation of the RBCs is irrelevant - if it mattered, birds wouldn't have nucleated RBCs.

No one has come up with a decent explanation for why mammals pop out their nuclei.