What is the maximum equilibrium temperature that a mammal could evolve to tolerate?

Mammals live in some fairly extreme environments, but the most heat-tolerant ones all seem to cheat: e.g., they dig burrows to stay cool during the day and come out at night, avoiding the heat, or they drink tons of water to keep their body temperature down during the day and recover at night.

A little preliminary research indicates that the highest core body temperatures for existing mammals are around 41C--only 4 degrees higher than typical human body temperatures. Is that a practical limit, or could some mammal plausibly evolve to tolerate significantly higher temperatures indefinitely?

is a duplicate

This question has been asked before and has already been answered. It should be marked as a duplicate.

Please enter the URL of the proposed duplicate in the details field below.

not constructive

This question cannot be answered in a way that is helpful to anyone. It's not possible to learn something from possible answers, except for the solution for the specific problem of the asker.

Communities

What is the maximum equilibrium temperature that a mammal could evolve to tolerate?

0 comment threads

0 answers