This week we&#39;re going to learn about some fish that feature warm-bloodedness! Thanks to Eilee for suggesting the moonfish, or opah.

Further reading:

Are all fish cold-blooded?

The Opah Fish Is Warm-Blooded!

Basking Sharks Are Partially Warm-Blooded, New Research Suggests
Megalodon Was Partially Warm-Blooded, New Research Shows
The opah, or moonfish, looks like a pancake with fins but is an active swimmer [picture from first article linked above]:



An opah not having a good day [photo by USA NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center - https://swfsc.noaa.gov/ImageGallery/Default.aspx?moid=4724, Public Domain]:



Show transcript:
Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.
Months ago now, Eilee suggested we talk about the sunfish. We’re actually not going to talk about the sunfish this week, although it is on the list to cover eventually. Instead, we’re going to talk about something else in Eilee’s email. Eilee asked if there was a moonfish too, and not only is there a moonfish, it’s basically the most unique fish alive today in one particular way. It’s warm-blooded!
The moonfish is also called the opah. It’s golden-orange in color with little white spots, and it’s very round and flattened side-to-side, like a pancake with orange fins. It has big golden eyes and a tiny mouth. It’s also quite large, with the biggest species growing up to 6 and a half feet long, or 2 meters. That’s a really big pancake. It lives in the ocean, sometimes diving deeply, and despite looking like a pancake, it can swim very quickly to catch squid and small fish. It also eats krill. The reason it can swim so quickly is because it has huge muscles that power its fins, and the muscles also generate a lot of heat, enough to keep its entire body at least several degrees warmer than the surrounding water. This is a warm-blooded trait, but fish are supposed to be cold-blooded.
The scientific term for warm-bloodedness is endothermy. Mammals and birds are endothermic, meaning our internal body temperature stays roughly the same no matter what temperature it is outside. Cold-bloodedness, called ectothermy, means an animal’s internal body temperature fluctuates depending on the temperature outside its body. Reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates are all cold-blooded.
To us as mammals, it feels like warm-bloodedness is a really good idea, but it comes at a high cost. Mammals and birds have to eat a lot more and a lot more often than cold-blooded animals do, because keeping our body temperature steady takes a whole lot of energy. An endothermic animal generates heat mainly by metabolizing food, although muscle movements like shivering and running also generate heat. An endothermic animal can be as active at night as it is during the day, and can be as active in winter as it is in summer.
Some otherwise cold-blooded animals can generate enough heat with muscle movements to warm parts of the body, called regional endotherm

Episode 353: Warm-Blooded Fish

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