Oo, fictional animals. I have a humanoid half dragon (magically halted vampiric reproduction) + many questions. I've been working on it being.. half cold blooded, but have no idea how that'd work. Are there.. levels of cold bloodedness, or something?
First of all, WOAH WOW AWESOME, that’s pretty cool!
Secondly, I believe you’re talking about mesotherms.
They’re animals that don’t really fit in with ectotherms/poikilotherms (most fish, reptiles, etc), because when they get cold, they shiver or burn brown fat (not white fat – when you use brown fat, you can produce heat and energy) to stay warm or increase their body temperature. Their metabolism also increases.
And they’re not endotherms/homeotherms because unlike them (us, too), as the temperature drops, they have a harder time maintaining their body temperature.
Examples of mesotherms: great white shark, leatherback sea turtle (this is partly why leatherbacks have a larger range than other sea turtles), tuna, and spiny anteaters.
You might wanna look into how they work, if you decide your humanoid is going to be one of these guys, because their body temperature normally rises with their size, and it’s easier for larger animals to stay warm. For example, leatherback sea turtles can rely on their size to keep most of their body heat in cold water. And if you’re really interested, you should look into heterothermy, homeothermy, and poikilothermy.
Also I’m just going to add this, because your humanoid is half-dragon and I’ve heard some ways of explaining dragons by having them evolve with/from dinosaurs: there’s a huge freaking debate on dinosaur metabolism that’s been going on forever, but lots of folk now believe they were mesotherms.
https://sites.google.com/site/jgradym/home
^ This guy has done a lot on this topic. ^
I hope this helps! Also, thank you for asking!
If you need clarification or have another problem, you can ask again or email me!
Edit: I messed up. I fixed the link.
