1988/10/01 by JM Watson, JAM Graves · 2 citations
Chemistry · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Biology #Ecology #Energetics #Evolutionary biology #Homeothermy #Monotreme #Physiological and biochemical adaptations #Platypus #Systematics #Taxonomy (biology) #Thermoregulation #Zoology #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses
paper · doi:10.1071/zo9880573
openalex publication_date 1988/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
We have studied the effects of temperature on the phases of the cell cycle in cells derived from the monotreme mammals, platypus and echidna, which have the unusually low body temperature of 32°C. We report here that M phase and the cycle time conform to expectations, but in the case of cycle time this is due to different effects of high and low temperatures on GI, G2 and S phases. The finding that the G2 and S phases apparently have an inverse linear relationship with temperature up to 37°C (the upper lethal temperature) suggests that the low body temperature of the monotremes is not primitive, but rather has been the result of a lowering of the body temperature during their evolutionary history.