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bremidon t1_ivf77gl wrote

Reply to comment by MaddoxJKingsley in We know about viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms evolving to better infect other organisms. Consequently, diseases change too to some extent. Are there any examples of human bodies evolving to fight against these disease causing agents? by ha_ha_ha_ha_hah

Do cold-blooded animals suffer from fungal infections at a significantly higher rate? Or did they evolve another way to effectively deal with fungus?

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MaddoxJKingsley t1_ivfj4l9 wrote

To answer both questions: yes, and to my knowledge no, not really. Fungal infections still kill a lot of snakes and amphibians. Some animals might be resistant or even immune to infections they evolved geographically close to, but they're still very susceptible to other types/strains. Even bats are susceptible, despite being warm-blooded; white-nose syndrome is a fungal infection that gets into bats while they're hibernating and their body temp is much lower.

One reason why we don't run even hotter than we already do, and thus protect against even more things, could be because it would require us to intake a lot more energy. The hotter you are, the more you need to eat. Cold-blooded animals don't need to eat as much.

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vancenovells t1_ivhanwd wrote

How far could we raise our body temperature before running into metabolic trouble?

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