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Cover image
Cover Image
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Cover: A pair of downstream-migrating, juvenile sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus L.) that have just completed their transformation from substrate-dwelling, filter feeders into free-swimming, parasitic feeders. Lampreys are the most primitive osmoregulating vertebrates and this species has an anadromous life history. During metamorphosis branchial seawater-type mitochondria-rich cells first appear, gill Na+/K+-ATPase activity increases and hypo-osmoregulatory ability improves markedly, all indicating a preparatory adaptation for life at sea (see article by P. Reis-Santos, S. D. McCormick and J. M. Wilson, pp. 978−988), and abundant Na+/K+-ATPase (red staining) is associated with these cells. Photos by Jonathan Wilson; thanks to Dr Carlos Antunes for supplying the lampreys.Close Modal - PDF Icon PDF LinkTable of contents
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz
Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
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Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
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In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
