Question

Animals which can tolerate narrow range of temperature are called
A) Polythermal
B) Stenothermal
C) Oligo Thermal
D) Eurythermal

Answer 1

Hint: Organisms that can tolerate a wide range of salinities are known as Euryhaline organisms and those that survive in a narrow range are stenohaline organisms.

Complete Answer:
Major abiotic factors that influence any habitat are Temperature, Water, Light and Soil.

Temperature: It is an important ecological factor that affects the organisms. The land shows variation in temperatures, Some places show temperature of about 0 degree and at some places the temperature is around 50 degree. Temperature also varies seasonally. It decreases from the equator towards the poles.

Temperature affects the activity of enzymes in the body. All enzymes have optimum range at which they are active to carry out any function in the body. At higher temperatures the enzymes undergo denaturation and at lower temperatures the enzymes remain in inactive state. Thus it is very important for any organism to maintain the temperature so that metabolism of the body is not affected.

1) Some organisms can tolerate a wide range of temperatures. Such organisms are known as Eurythermal. Examples : Man, Cat, Dog, etc
2) Majority of the organisms require a narrow range of temperatures to survive. These animals are Stenothermal. Examples : Crocodile, Penguin, etc
3) Oligo Thermal means tolerating low temperatures (not range).
4) Polythermal means tolerating high temperatures.

Here the question is about narrow range . Hence the correct answer is option b.

Note: Stenothermal organisms are further classified as
- Thermophilic : Organisms that survive in high temperatures only .
Examples are coral reefs, etc
- Cryophilic : Organisms that survive in low temperatures only.
Examples are Seals, Salmons, etc