Posted on 02/22/2005 11:40:37 PM PST by SunkenCiv
...Casadevall, of Albert Einstein College of New York... has long been troubled by the lives of warm-blooded animals, who must live a virtual food-finding mission because they burn so many calories each day just heating their bodies. Cold-blooded animals, on the other hand, need only eat once every few days... Fungal infections rarely give mammals more than a mildly irritating case of athlete's foot or a yeast infection but are often deadly to plants, fish, and insects... Researchers last year discovered fossil evidence of a post-collision "fungal spike," and in a world dense with potentially pathogenic fungi, warm-blooded animals might have had a unique advantage.I'd forgotten about this, rediscovered it tonight, pretty interesting. :')
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