Issues

Summary: Performance at average conditions is seldom equal to average performance across a range of conditions. Known as Jensen's inequality, this disparity has important implications for how biologists view the world.

Summary: Thermal acclimation of some temperate fishes causes extensive remodelling of the heart. The resultant changes to the active and passive properties of the heart represent a highly integrated phenotypic response.

Summary: Across-species analysis of the energy costs to run uphill highlights the importance of considering relative, proportional and absolute measures, and of interpretation within an ecological context, for example, in terms of the energy landscape.

Summary: Metabolic rate appears to be proportional to force rate for treadmill running; however, this is the result of runners selecting step frequencies that minimize cost per distance for specified speeds (speed constraints).

Summary: Larval zebrafish show spontaneous alternation behavior, supporting the future use of zebrafish as a high-throughput pharmacological model in mnestic studies.

Highlighted Article: Flatfish hidden in the benthos produce water currents by breathing, providing a source of sensory information for seals (Pinnipedia) in the detection of prey fish.

Summary: Rhinecanthus aculeatus produce sounds by alternate sweeping movements of pectoral fins which push the scutes. The first part of each sound pulse cycle corresponds to inward buckling of the scutes and the second corresponds to passive recoil of the swimbladder wall.

Summary: Barnacles have complex interactions with bacteria during settlement and metamorphosis. Barnacle attachment uses multiple proteinaceous glues, which attract bacteria to the interface; bacteria at this interface are eventually killed.

Summary: External filter flaps and inner valves support a respiratory airflow through the thorax in flying blowflies by opening the valve flaps during wing upstroke and keeping the inner openings narrow.

Highlighted Article: Torpor expression is enhanced in yellow-footed antechinus in response to a combination of fire cues (food restriction, smoke and a charcoal/ash substrate), indicating a previously unrecognised regulatory mechanism for thermal biology in mammals.

Summary: Xenopus laevis tadpoles decrease their swimming frequency during development without changing head movement amplitude, with consequences for vestibular self-stimulation.

Summary: Hypotheses regarding causes of the behavioural modifications in threespine stickleback parasitized with the flatworm Schistocephalus solidus are tested by analyzing behaviour changes induced by experimental manipulations.

Summary: A basic relationship that links the motion of running to the ground forces applied enables practical, motion-based predictions of force–time patterns at essentially all speeds and regardless of foot-strike mechanics.

Highlighted Article: The wolf spider Lycosa tarantula uses both lateral and substratum information to return home. Lateral information is gathered by the posterior lateral eyes; substratum information is gathered mainly by the anterior lateral eyes.

Summary: Cichlid retinas show spatial variation with an area centralis that has higher photoreceptor and ganglion cell density and less opsin coexpression. Visual modeling suggests this may reflect a trade-off between colour discrimination and contrast detection.

Summary: The edge of an expanding population is characterized by an increase in locomotor stamina and limb dimensions in an invasive and largely aquatic frog.

Highlighted Article: Increased sensory input from the lateral line contributes to the evolution of sleep loss in Mexican cavefish, providing a model for investigating how the sensory systems modulate sleep.

Summary: An ancient duplication of the rhodopsin gene, rh1-2, is a functional visual pigment and is expressed in retinal photoreceptors.

Summary: Foraging over long versus short distance increases consumption of specific nutrients and enhances performance in German cockroaches.

Summary: Northern breed dogs have lower locomotor transport costs than other breeds, in part due to an energy-saving morphological mechanism retained from their highly cursorial progenitor, the gray wolf.

Summary: The stress response suppresses measures of innate immune activity at different rates. The elevation of plasma corticosterone above baseline levels may be necessary for stress-induced suppression to occur.