Cold-blooded organisms (called "poikilotherms") maintain their body temperatures in ways different from mammals and birds. The term is now outdated in scientific contexts. Cold-blooded creatures were, initially, presumed to be incapable of maintaining their body temperatures at all. They were presumed to be "slaves" to their environments. Whatever the environmental temperature was, so too was their body temperature. Cold-blooded animals are now called ectotherms, a term which signifies that th