âº a gradual process of change and development. âº biology Evolution is the process by which the physical characteristics of types of creatures change over time, new types of creatures develop, and others disappear. (Definition of âevolutionâ from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary Â© Cambridge University Press)
You can remember the difference between endotherms and ectotherms if you remember that endo- means inside endo- = inside and ecto- means outside ecto- = outside, so endotherms generate their own heat from within, and ectotherms get their heat from the outside.
This is because in warm-blooded animals, the heat they lose is proportional to the surface area of their bodies, while the heat they produce is proportional to their mass. This means that larger warm-blooded animals can generate more heat than they lose and they can keep their body temperatures stable more easily.