Our primary objective was to determine if rates of fluid-phase endocytosis (FPE) were conserved in hepatocytes from organisms acclimated and adapted to different temperatures. To this aim, the fluorescent dye Lucifer yellow was employed to measure FPE at different assay temperatures (AT) in hepatocytes from 5°C- and 20°C-acclimated trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (at 5 and 20°C AT), 22°C- and 35°C-acclimated tilapia, Oreochromis nilotica (at 22 and 35°C AT), and the Sprague-Dawley rat (at 10, 20, and 37°C AT). FPE was also studied in rats fed a long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)-enriched diet (at 10°C AT). Despite being temperature dependent, endocytic rates (values in pl · cell¹ · h¹) in both species of fish were compensated after a period of acclimation. For example, in 20°C-acclimated trout, the rate of endocytosis declined from 1.84 to 1.07 when the AT was reduced from 20 to 5°C; however, after a period of acclimation at 5°C, the rate (at 5°C AT) was largely restored (1.80) and almost perfectly compensated (95%). In tilapia, endocytic rates were also temperature compensated, although only partially (36%). Relatively similar rates obtained at 5°C in 5°C-acclimated trout (1.8), at 20°C in 20°C-acclimated trout (1.84), and at 22°C in 22°C-acclimated tilapia (2.2) suggest that endocytic rates are somewhat conserved in these two species of fish. In contrast, the rate in rat measured at 37°C (16.83) was severalfold greater than in fish at their respective body temperatures. A role for lipids in determining rates of endocytosis was supported by data obtained at 10°C in hepatocytes isolated from rats fed a long-chain PUFA-enriched diet: endocytic rates were higher (5.35 pl · cell¹ · h¹) than those of rats fed a standard chow diet (2.33 pl · cell¹ · h¹). The conservation of endocytic rates in fish may be related to their ability to conserve other membrane characteristics (i.e., order or phase behavior) by restructuring their membrane lipid composition or by modulating the activities of proteins that regulate endocytosis and membrane traffic, whereas the lack of conservation between fish and rat may be due to differences in metabolic rate.