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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The tips of propulsive structures operating in fluids, both air and water, bend similarly among diverse animal sizes and taxa as exemplified by whale flukes and bird wings. Costello et al. (jeb245346) describe two recent areas of research progress that explain these patterns. First, comparative animal kinematics have defined a constrained range for both bending extent and location of propulsive structures. Second, new technical approaches have uncovered the fluid dynamic advantages of these constrained bending patterns. Together, these methods clarify the gains in propulsive efficiency that have guided widespread convergence on similar bending patterns among animals moving in fluids. Photo credit: Mike Baird.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
CONVERSATION
COMMENTARIES
A fundamental propulsive mechanism employed by swimmers and flyers throughout the animal kingdom
Summary: Wings and fins bend remarkably similarly among animals that fly and swim. Here, we review these patterns, describe their mechanistic benefits and propose a path forward for their study.
The mechanistic basis and adaptive significance of cross-tolerance: a ‘pre-adaptation’ to a changing world?
Summary: Although stress exposure is typically detrimental, here, we highlight protective interactions where exposure to mild stress can increase an organism's resilience to a different stressor – a phenomenon termed ‘cross-protection’.
Optimisation and constraint: explaining metabolic patterns in biology
Summary: We recently developed a new theory to explain the evolutionary origin of metabolic scaling. Here, we present an overview of our approach and a critique of its limitations.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
In a marine teleost, the significance of oxygen supply for acute thermal tolerance depends upon the context and the endpoint used
Summary: In the European seabass, cardiorespiratory capacity to supply oxygen for metabolism is significant for tolerance of thermal ramping if the endpoint is fatigue from aerobic exercise, but not if the endpoint is loss of equilibrium under resting conditions.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Divergence in cell cycle progression is associated with shifted phenology in a multivoltine moth: the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis
Summary: Regulation of cell cycle progression rates drives differences in larval diapause termination, and adult emergence timing, between early- and late-emerging European corn borer strains.
Warmer and more acidic conditions enhance performance of an endemic low-shore gastropod
Summary: The temperature for optimal righting performance of an African whelk (Trochia cingulata) shifts with acclimation temperature but, contrary to previous studies, its upper thermal tolerance increases with temperature and acidification.
Temporal regulation of temperature tolerances and gene expression in an arctic insect
An arctic arthropod adjusts its thermal tolerances to microenvironmental fluctuations within a time scale of minutes–hours. The gene expression modulating physiology occurs at much different temperatures in the field than laboratory.
Impacts of ocean acidification and warming on post-larval growth and metabolism in two populations of the great scallop (Pecten maximus)
Summary: Juvenile scallops from France and Norway differ in their response to warming and acidification: French scallops show more physiological plasticity, adjusting their proteome and metabolism to maintain growth.
A sensation for inflation: initial swim bladder inflation in larval zebrafish is mediated by the mechanosensory lateral line
Summary: Larval zebrafish use their lateral line to sense the air–water interface and regulate initial swim bladder inflation to achieve neutral buoyancy.
Artificial light impairs local attraction to females in male glow-worms
Under brighter illumination, fewer glow-worm males reach a female-mimicking LED in a Y-maze, taking longer to do so, partly because they retract their head beneath their head-shield for longer.
Phylogeny and evolution of erythrocytes in mammals
Summary: The evolution of mammalian red blood cell features, above all size and haemoglobin–oxygen affinity, has interesting relevance to concepts such as biological constraint, preadaptation and adaptive selection.
A diminutive snake species can maintain regional heterothermy in both homogeneous and heterogeneous thermal environments
Summary: Diminutive snakes can maintain regional heterothermy despite elongate shapes in both homogeneous and heterogeneous thermal environments.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
New funding schemes for junior faculty staff
In celebration of our 100th anniversary, JEB has launched two new grants to support junior faculty staff working in animal comparative physiology and biomechanics who are within five years of setting up their first lab/research group. Check out our ECR Visiting Fellowships and Research Partnership Kickstart Travel Grants.
JEB@100: an interview with Monitoring Editor Stuart Egginton
Stuart Egginton reveals how he overcame the challenges of being a comparative physiologist in a medical school and how he would tell his younger self to trust his instincts when pursuing new ideas.
Travelling Fellowships from JEB
Our Travelling Fellowships offer up to £3,000 to graduate students and post-doctoral researchers wishing to make collaborative visits to other laboratories. Next deadline to apply is 27 October 2023
Feedforward and feedback control in the neuromechanics of vertebrate locomotion
Auke J. Ijspeert and Monica A. Daley provide an overview of key knowledge on feedback and feedforward control gained from comparative vertebrate experiments obtained from neuromechanical simulations and robotic approaches. Read the full Centenary Review Article here.
Light fine-tunes electric fish pulses to keep them in the shade
Weakly electric fish perceive their surroundings through electric chirrups and now Ana Camargo & colleagues have revealed that light fine-tunes the fish's electric pulses to ensure that they remain scheduled beneath the mats of vegetation they use for shelter, avoiding penetrating beams of light that could give them away.
