Did you know that critters we referred to as "cold-blooded" when I was a kid are now called poikilotherms?
According to Wiktionary:
poikilo-
From Ancient Greek ποικίλος (poikílos, “spotted, embroidered”).
- (sciences) variegated or variable
-therm
From Ancient Greek θερμός (thermos, “warm”).
- (biology) used to name types of animal having a specified form of body temperature mechanism
And before I leave, here's one more interesting factoid from Wikipedia:
The Naked Mole Rat is the only mammal that is currently thought to be poikilothermic.[2][3]
They have Naked Mole Rats at the Toledo Zoo. I've seen them on many occasions. I can't remember if the info about them said they used external heat sources to regulate their body temps.......
They are weird in many ways. They live totally underground, have little useful vision, put as much musculature into digging (with their jaws) as we put into ambulation, and reproduce on the "queen and drones" model. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that they are poikilothermic in addition to all that!
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