However, when homeotherms and poikilotherms have similar niches, and compete, the homeotherm can often drive poikilothermic competitors to extinction, because homeotherms can gather food for a greater fraction of each day.
22.
While homeotherms have a thermal-neutral zone ( TNZ ) in which no extra metabolic energy is spent on the regulation of body temperature, amphibians have a zone in which their metabolic processes are at their optimum ( Navas, Gomes, Carvalho . 2007 ).
23.
But a preliminary study of the relationship between adult size, growth rate, and body temperature concluded that larger dinosaurs had higher body temperatures than smaller ones had; " Apatosaurus ", the largest dinosaur in the sample, was estimated to have a body temperature exceeding, whereas smaller dinosaurs were estimated to have body temperatures around Based on these estimations, the study concluded that large dinosaurs were inertial homeotherms ( their temperatures were stabilized by their sheer bulk ) and that dinosaurs were ectothermic ( in colloquial terms, " cold-blooded ", because they did not generate as much heat as mammals when not moving or digesting food ).
