Thermoregulation of the Spiny Soft-Shelled Turtle Trionyx spinifer
- 1 January 1981
- journal article
- research article
- Published by University of Chicago Press in Physiological Zoology
- Vol. 54 (1) , 74-80
- https://doi.org/10.1086/physzool.54.1.30155806
Abstract
Ten soft-shelled turtles were heated and cooled in air and water (15, 35, 15 C). In water, all animals heated faster than they cooled. In still air, seven of nine animals tested cooled faster than they heated. Heart rates during warming exceeded heart rates during cooling at the same body temperature in air and water. Thermal time constants (τ) were calculated in minutes, and regression formulas (with mass in kg) in water were and for warming and cooling, respectively. Values for air were and . In spite of a high surface-to-volume geometry (flat, disk shaped), soft-shelled turtles exhibited a high degree of physiological thermoregulation, with small (0.5 kg) animals heating twice as fast as they cooled. They were able to alter heat-exchange rates to a greater extent than any previously reported ectotherm of similar size.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: