Definition of "ectotherm" []

• An organism that regulates its body temperature largely by exchanging heat with its surroundings; a poikilotherm. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "That's why several zoos are participating in a sort of sperm bank for snot otters, says Dale McGinnity, ectotherm curator for the Nashville Zoo."
• "Whereas an endotherm expends a tremendous amount of energy just to maintain a constant body temperature, a cold ectotherm can pass months at a time requiring little food or oxygen."
• "Endotherms differ from an ectotherm because they typically have core temperatures above that of the surrounding environment, whereas the core temperatures of ectotherms depend on external sources of heat – primarily from solar radiation."