Are penguins cold blooded?
Just a quick thought here that may help you. Under “cold blooded” – or ectothermic – we understand an organism that does not produce a relatively constant body core temperature by means of metabolitic activity etc., but rather regulates its temperature by shutteling between warmer and coller areas. It takes on the temperature of its environment. That would be detrimental in case of an animal living in antarctic conditions. A penguin’s blood would freeze, there would be crystalization, and the cells would eventually burst. In other words, the penguin would be a very cold toast. Now, there are however ectothermic organisms in arctic and antarctic oceans, which maintain blood flow by using a chemcial anti-freeze. This has been found, for example in some fishes (the plural is allowed here, since we aretalking about more than one species). But penguins don’t have anything like that and do not need it. As others have mentioned above, they are very well insulated endotherms (maintain a relati
