Issues
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Cover Image
Cover: Cuttlefish escape responses are powered by circular muscles, which compress the mantle cavity, forcing a jet of water out of the funnel, propelling the animal. Gladman and Askew (jeb244977) investigated the mechanical properties of cuttlefish mantle muscle in juvenile and adult animals. The muscle contraction kinetics slowed during development, with a rightward shift in the frequency at which maximal power was generated. The optimal frequency for maximum power output in vitro matched the jet frequency seen in vivo, suggesting that animals are maximising muscular power during escape jet propulsion swimming. Photo credit: Nicholas W. Gladman.
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SHORT COMMUNICATION
Lactate sensing by neuroepithelial cells isolated from the gills of killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus)
Editor's choice: Lactate is a metabolic fuel but it also stimulates breathing in vertebrates; in fish, this reflex is mediated by gill neuroepithelial cells, which act as lactate sensors.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
The mechanical properties of the mantle muscle of European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis)
Summary: Slowing of muscle contraction kinetics during development underlies the shift in the optimal frequency for maximal power output during jet propulsion swimming in cuttlefish.
Parallel evolution of opsin visual pigments in hawkmoths by tuning of spectral sensitivities during transition from a nocturnal to a diurnal ecology
Highlighted Article: Nocturnal to diurnal transitions in hawkmoths are accompanied by reduced separation between short- and long-wavelength sensitivity peaks which may be caused by parallel amino acid substitutions in visual opsins.
Heat tolerance limits of Mediterranean songbirds and their current and future vulnerabilities to temperature extremes
Highlighted Article: Mediterranean songbirds have limited cooling efficiencies and heat tolerance limits. This makes them sensitive to climate warming, particularly so under future climate change scenarios.
Using colour pattern edge contrast statistics to predict detection speed and success in triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus)
Summary: The speed with which triggerfish detect patterned stimuli cannot be explained by a single image statistic. The relationship between pattern statistics and animal behaviour is complex, and is likely to be distance dependent.
The time course of behavioural phase change in the Central American locust Schistocerca piceifrons
Summary: Behavioural phase transition in the Central American locust differs from that in the desert locust, suggesting that the expression and mechanisms of density-dependent behavioural plasticity in locusts may not be phylogenetically constrained.
Trade-offs in muscle physiology in selectively bred high runner mice
Summary: There is a muscle-level trade-off between speed and endurance across replicated lines of mice experimentally selected for high levels of voluntary wheel running. However, this trade-off does not appear to underpin a previously reported organismal-level trade-off.
Behaviour and muscle activity across the aquatic–terrestrial transition in Polypterus senegalus
Highlighted Article: Despite discrete changes in kinematic magnitude and coordination, the pattern of axial red muscle and pectoral fin adductor activity remains similar across the aquatic–terrestrial transition in Polypterus senegalus.
Finding food in the dark: how trajectories of a gymnotiform fish change with spatial learning
Summary: The trajectories of electric fish change as they learn to find food. Initial random sharp turns transition to smooth trajectories, but remain unpredictable and not simple direct paths to food.
Thyroid hormone-induced cell death in sea urchin metamorphic development
Summary: Thyroid hormones cause a significant increase in programmed cell death in post-ingression but not pre-ingression sea urchin larvae, indicating differential regulation of larval development by thyroid hormones via programmed cell death.
Measurements of body temperature and oxidative stress reveal differential costs associated with humoral immune function in a passerine bird
Summary: Challenging the adaptive immune system increases resting body temperature as part of an adequate immune response at the cost of elevated oxidative stress.
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.