Issues
-
Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Hummingbirds can lower their body temperature and metabolism at night to save energy, using a strategy called torpor. Shankar et al. (jeb243208) found much finer control of hummingbird body temperature than birds are usually shown to have: they lower their temperature by varying amounts, and use a shallow form of torpor to balance the trade-offs of using deep torpor versus remaining in normal body temperature sleep. This composite thermal image shows a male black-chinned hummingbird in normal sleep early in the night (left), transitioning to deep torpor, and then in deep torpor (right). Photo credit: Anusha Shankar, Isabelle Cisneros and Don Powers.
- PDF Icon PDF LinkTable of contents
- PDF Icon PDF LinkIssue info
INSIDE JEB
NEWS
COMMENTARY
On the feeding biomechanics of nectarivorous birds
Summary: Nectar-feeding birds employ unique mechanisms to collect minute liquid rewards from floral structures. This Commentary details the three stages of nectar feeding and suggests research pathways to expand our current knowledge.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Long distance homing in the cane toad (Rhinella marina) in its native range
Summary: Translocation-homing experiments reveal that non-territorial, non-migratory Rhinella marina can navigate to home areas following displacements exceeding regular, natural movements, suggesting a previously unconsidered prevalence of navigational abilities amongst amphibians.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
A novel intramandibular joint facilitates feeding versatility in the sixbar distichodus
Summary: The sixbar distichodus is a freshwater, plant-eating fish with an extra joint in its lower jaw that allows it to feed in new ways compared with fishes lacking the joint.
Discontinuous gas exchange in Madagascar hissing cockroaches is not a consequence of hysteresis around a fixed PCO2 threshold
Summary: Discontinuous gas exchange cycles in cockroaches do not arise from internal PCO2 oscillations around a fixed ventilatory threshold. DGCs continue when haemolymph PCO2 exceeds values recorded during continuous gas exchange.
Severe hypoxia exposure inhibits larval brain development but does not affect the capacity to mount a cortisol stress response in zebrafish
Summary: Severe acute hypoxia exposure in larval zebrafish significantly decreases forebrain neural proliferation but does not affect the long-term capacity to mount a cortisol stress response.
A heterothermic spectrum in hummingbirds
Editor's Choice: Three hummingbird species are capable of a temperature spectrum from normothermy to torpor, implying that some birds, at least, can precisely control their metabolic state.
Rapid blood acid–base regulation by European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in response to sudden exposure to high environmental CO2
Summary: European sea bass exposed to 1 kPa (10,000 µatm) CO2 regulate blood and red cell pH within 2 h and 40 min, respectively, protecting O2 transport capacity, via enhanced gill acid excretion.
Elastic energy storage across speeds during steady-state hopping of desert kangaroo rats (Dipodomys deserti)
Summary: The ankle extensor tendons of desert kangaroo rats store and return elastic energy in relation to hopping speed, recovering more energy at faster speeds.
Maternal food restriction during pregnancy affects offspring development and swimming performance in a placental live-bearing fish
Highlighted Article: Maternal food restriction during pregnancy results in smaller offspring, slower postnatal body fat gain and an inhibition of postnatal improvement of swimming skills during feeding, possibly leading to lower competitive abilities after birth.
Genetic variation in haemoglobin is associated with evolved changes in breathing in high-altitude deer mice
Highlighted Article: High-altitude variants in haemoglobin genes are associated with evolved changes in breathing that likely enhance O2 uptake in hypoxia in deer mice.
Behavioural responses of threespine stickleback with lateral line asymmetries to experimental mechanosensory stimuli
Summary: Stickleback with more mechanoreceptors have a stronger bias towards hovering with their right side adjacent to a surface when illuminated but a weaker bias in the dark.
CORRECTION
2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner
The JEB Editors are delighted to announce the shortlisted authors for the 2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize. Read the winning paper - Tiny spies: mosquito antennae are sensitive sensors for eavesdropping on frog calls - by Hoover Pantoja-Sanchez and Brian Leavell from Ximena Bernal's lab at Purdue University, USA.
JEB Science Communication Workshop for ECRs
If you’re an early-career researcher interested in science communication and are attending the SEB Annual Conference in Prague this summer, come a day early and join the JEB Editors at a sci comm workshop to learn the key writing skills needed to promote your research to a broad audience beyond your peers (1 July at 14.30-17.30). Places are limited to 24 attendees, and applicants should apply through the SEB registration page by 30 April 2024.
Bridging the gap between controlled conditions and natural habitats in understanding behaviour
Novel technologies enable behavioural experiments with non-model species, in naturalistic habitats and with underexplored behaviours. In their Commentary, Scholz and colleagues discuss how to obtain a deeper understanding of the natural ecology and lifestyle of study animals.
Beluga metabolic measures could help save species
To help save animals from extinction, it’s important to understand what each species needs to survive. This led Jason John et al. to measure the metabolic rates of captive belugas to develop a ‘fish calculator’ showing that the whales need to eat ~23 salmon per day.
ECR Workshop on Positive Peer Review
Are you an ECR looking for tips on how to write concise, astute and useful manuscript reviews? If so, join the JEB Editors at a 2-hour JEB-sponsored Workshop on Positive Peer Review at the Canadian Society of Zoologists annual meeting in Moncton on 9 May 2024 at 13.00-15.00. There are 25 spaces for ECRs and selection is first come, first serve. To sign up, check the ECR Workshop box when you register for the CSZ meeting.