Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Tail regeneration in the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius). As in many lizards, leopard geckos can self-detach or autotomize a portion of the tail to escape predation, and then regenerate a replacement. This series of images, taken over 12 days, demonstrates wound healing at the site of tail loss, followed by the early outgrowth of the new appendage. Jacyniak et al. (pp. 2858–2869) review the dramatic regenerative abilities of lizards, which extend well beyond the tail to include cartilage, skin, the spinal cord and even portions of the brain. Photo credit: M. Vickaryous.
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INSIDE JEB
CONVERSATION
COMMENTARY
Parasite-altered feeding behavior in insects: integrating functional and mechanistic research frontiers
Summary: A new and important wave of research investigates how parasites can change feeding behavior in insects in ways that benefit either the host or the parasite.
REVIEW
Tail regeneration and other phenomena of wound healing and tissue restoration in lizards
Summary: We highlight how lizards can inform, enhance and expand our understanding of the biology of regeneration.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Contraction-induced enhancement of relaxation during high force contractions of mouse lumbrical muscle at 37°C
Summary: The fast and slow phases of relaxation from high force isometric contractions can be enhanced following electrically evoked contraction of intact mouse lumbrical muscle at physiological temperatures.
Pre-settlement coral-reef fish larvae respond to magnetic field changes during the day
Summary: The individual orientation behaviour of coral-reef fish larvae during the pre-settlement phase is influenced by magnetic-field shifts, which indicates sensitivity to the geomagnetic field and the use of a magnetic compass during dispersal and settlement.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Determining the behavioural dose–response relationship of marine mammals to air gun noise and source proximity
Highlighted Article: An analytical framework relating the behavioural response of whales to received level and proximity of a noise source, with dose–response results of humpback whales to air guns.
Behavioral color vision in a cichlid fish: Metriaclima benetos
Summary: Behavioral assays were used to determine the color-vision capabilities of a rock-dwelling cichlid from Lake Malawi and suggest that cichlids possess a trichromatic visual system.
Chamber music: an unusual Helmholtz resonator for song amplification in a Neotropical bush-cricket (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae)
Summary: Laser vibrometry, microcomputed tomography and finite element modelling are used to show that an unusual pronotal inflation covering the wings of a bush-cricket acts as a Helmholtz resonator.
Homing pigeons (Columba livia) modulate wingbeat characteristics as a function of route familiarity
Highlighted Article: Onboard accelerometry reveals that pigeons' flight characteristics undergo gradual changes over the course of learning a route, and thus provide potential biomechanical signatures of birds' landscape familiarity.
Ammonia exposure affects the mRNA and protein expression levels of certain Rhesus glycoproteins in the gills of climbing perch
Summary: Active ammonia excretion in the gills of the climbing perch, Anabas testudineus, may involve apical Rhag and basolateral Rhcg2 expressed in ammonia-inducible Na+/K+-ATPase α1c-immunoreactive ionocytes.
miR-210 expression is associated with methionine-induced differentiation of trout satellite cells
Summary: Identification of a novel myo-miR (miR-210) by miRNA microarray, qRT-PCR, and next generation sequencing, recognized in trout as a novel regulator of differentiation through the use of methionine depletion to synchronize cells.
Heart rate dynamics in a marsupial hibernator
Summary: Control and function of the cardiac system in the eastern pygmy possum during deep torpor is indistinguishable from that of a placental hibernator, and its dynamic heart rate range is one of the greatest measured to date at ∼600 beats min−1.
Effects of a social cue on reproductive development and pre-alternate molt in seasonally breeding migrant and resident female songbirds (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
Highlighted Article: Migrant and resident birds exhibit differences in reproductive development consistent with adaptive specialization in the use of photoperiodic cues, but not social cues, to regulate reproductive development.
Carotenoids buffer the acute phase response on fever, sickness behavior and rapid bill color change in zebra finches
Summary: Carotenoids are colorful pigments traded off between display and health. When we induced a strong immune response, zebra finches supplemented with carotenoids were able to buffer the negative effects of sickness.
Rapid growth causes abnormal vaterite formation in farmed fish otoliths
Summary: The rapid growth experienced by farmed fishes causes an otolith deformation rarely seen in the wild.
Low levels of extracellular glucose limit cardiac anaerobic metabolism in some species of fish
Summary: Cardiac anaerobic metabolism is compromised in fish species with low levels of plasma glucose. This in turn may limit hypoxic performance.
Reproductive and metabolic state differences in olfactory responses to amino acids in a mouth brooding African cichlid fish
Summary: Electro-olfactograms in an African cichlid fish reveal intra-sexual plasticity in olfactory responses of both males and females that is related to reproductive and metabolic state.
Changes in mechanical work during neural adaptation to asymmetric locomotion
Summary: Minimizing mechanical work performed by the legs may drive locomotor adaptation, with wide relevance for the control of legged locomotion and motor learning in novel environments.
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.