 Anatomical examination indicates that the pelagic thresher is unlikely to be warm-bodied like the common thresher; it lacks a rete mirabile, a blood vessel countercurrent exchange system that prevents metabolic heat from being dissipated into the water, inside its trunk.Furthermore, its aerobic red muscles, responsible for generating heat in the common thresher, are positioned in two lateral strips just beneath the skin rather than at the core of the body.A rete system is present around the pelagic thresher's brain and eyes, albeit less developed than in the bigeye thresher, which may serve to buffer those organs against temperature changes.