Iguana

1 Pages 250 Words

When an iguana has an infection the body it needs energy to fight it. Because they are ectotherms, they must draw this energy form the sun. To regulate it’s core temperature, the iguana must either receive it from radiation or conduction. Increasing the core temperature will speed up chemical reactions in the iguana and enable it to fight off an infection.
The iguana mainly uses two of the four possible ways heat gains and losses occur, radiation and conduction. Radiation is where the iguana would receive the heat directly from the sun. This is why they lay out and bask in the sunlight. This next way may determine where the iguana is laying while absorbing the suns energy. Conduction is where the iguana would receive heat from an object such as a rock. In order for the iguana to gain heat, the rock would have to be warmer then the iguana for the heat to transfer to it. An iguana must use these ways of heat transfer because reptiles are unable to increase their metabolic heat production like mammals. When there is damage to tissue the hypothalamus, located in the forebrain, increases what the core temperature should be and will decrease the amount of heat that is lost.
Ectotherms such as an iguana do not have the most effective way of maintaining their core temperature, but it seems effective. I believe by absorbing this heat, the iguanas are able to regulate their core temperature, enabling them to fight off infections....