Creature Design: Wind world ectotherm

Premise

By definition, an ectotherm uses environmental heat sources to regulate its own body temperature. The most common forms of body heat regulation that we observe from ectotherms here on Earth are:

• basking
• changing colors
• soaking
• burrowing
• clustering together with others

Some of these may be universally suited for a variety of planetary climate regimes, however certain planets may not accommodate any of those listed above. For the purposes of this question, we are assuming a bit of an extreme world, but not so extreme as to nullify all chances of life. Ideally, by "life", life as we know it is implied, however life as we know it may have never faced a world quite like this one:

Planet

This planet's defining characteristic is it has constant winds blowing at 90-100 miles per hour. This world's surface is covered 100% by obsidian, making it too hard to burrow in. The sky of the world is covered by perpetual clouds, making basking not viable (which would otherwise be great, since obsidian is black). I'm not sure how fresh water is obtained in this world yet, consider this out of the scope of the question. The ambient temperature of the planet is pretty hot, but the thermal dynamics of the constant winds counteract this. The ectotherms can be assumed to still be able to survive at this lower net-balance temperature that is induced by the winds. But of course, they would stand to gain much if they could become faster and more active by somehow harnessing the readily available wind to increase their body temperature.

Question

Is there anything in existence in biology that could be brought to bear for the design of this creature, enabling it to generate heat from wind from the environment? If not, what is one plausible solution that would not utterly mortify biologists? I don't want this creature to be dismissed as "impossible," but at the same time, I still have my doubts. Even under extremely specific circumstances, maybe the ectotherm playbook has no more tricks in store.

Further Clarifications:

• Assume all other ways of regulating body heat don't work, and the only way to increase it is to somehow harness the wind. Assume even clustering together doesn't work (perhaps resource scarcity, cannibalism within the species, whatever floats your boat)
• Assume the ectotherms don't die of exposure from the wind but are instead just sluggish
• Assume everything else not specified in the Planet section is life-friendly (breathable air, etc) Also, water acquisition is out of scope (otherwise soaking might be viable)
• Sluggish body temperature (without harnessing wind): 15°C
• Optimal body temperature: 28-30°C
• Size of creature: can be configurable, but no smaller than a Komodo dragon

Success Metric: The longer the optimal temperature is maintained, the better.

posted over 6 years ago

Arash Howaida‭

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