Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: A brown-throated three-toed sloth moving below-branch by suspensory walking. McKamy et al. (jeb245622 ) discovered that their long, modified forelimbs are used for propulsion, whereas their shorter, stronger hindlimbs apply large braking forces and provide greater body weight support when horizontally traversing branches. Tree sloths are one of only a few mammalian taxa that have obligate suspensory habits, and although occupation of this unusual arboreal niche is convergent with several species of primates and their two-toed cousins, all of these animals demonstrate variable locomotor kinetics when performing inverted quadrupedalism. Photo credit: Ignacio Moya, The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica.
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INSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
The control of breathing in fishes – historical perspectives and the path ahead
Summary: Here, we link the pivotal discoveries in respiratory control in fishes to the development of innovative methods and posit that the adoption of gene-based technologies will be instrumental in advancing the field.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Azimuthal invariance to looming stimuli in the Drosophila giant fiber escape circuit
Editor's choice: Drosophila descending neurons respond to visual looming information from the contralateral eye, even though their dendrites are ipsilateral, highlighting the importance of bilateral visual integration in generating location-invariant escape responses.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Reconstructing the pressure field around swimming fish using a physics-informed neural network
Summary: A machine learning-based method for reconstructing the pressure field around swimming fish can be used to study the role of pressure sensing in a fish’s response to external stimuli.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
To escape or to pursue: opposite decision making concerning a single moving object is influenced by starvation and sex
Summary: In the crab Neohelice granulata, compatible decisions between prey catching or predator escape responses are elicited by the same moving object. The behavioural choice depends on starvation level and sex.
How bumblebees coordinate path integration and body orientation at the start of their first learning flight
Summary: Bumblebees fixate the nest while viewing a preferred location in their visual surroundings. This conjunction is aided by a preceding translational scan.
Fipronil affects cockroach behavior and olfactory memory
Highlighted Article: Environmentally found sublethal doses of fipronil affect cockroach exploratory behavior and olfactory memory, similar to the effect on honey bees.
Elevated developmental temperatures impact the size and allometry of morphological traits of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris
Summary: Bumblebees show a reduction in body size and antenna length and a change in allometric scaling of the tongue with elevated developmental temperature, indicating a strong impact of temperature on morphological traits.
Pump the brakes! The hindlimbs of three-toed sloths decelerate and support suspensory locomotion
Highlighted Article: Vertical and mediolateral limb loading patterns suggest that there are multiple strategies of body weight support and locomotor stability across suspensory mammals.
Aversive memory conditioning induces fluoxetine-dependent anxiety-like states in the crab Neohelice granulata
Summary: Crab associative aversive conditioning leads to the formation of enduring emotional behavior, revealed through dark/light plus-maze evaluation, involving serotonin-dependent processes.
Balanced mitochondrial function at low temperature is linked to cold adaptation in Drosophila species
Summary: Mitochondrial oxygen consumption decreases at low temperature, particularly in cold-sensitive Drosophila species, which turn to oxidation of alternative substrates as complex I-supported respiration is impaired.
The roles of brain lipids and polar metabolites in the hypoxia tolerance of deep-diving pinnipeds
Summary: Efficient neurotransmission supported by increased sphingomyelin and reduced glutamate levels, as well as increased glycolytic capacity, may contribute to the hypoxia tolerance of the pinniped brain.
ECR SPOTLIGHT
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.
How a macrourid fish remains buoyant at depths it should be unable to reach
Fish with swimbladders should not be capable of descending below 7200m, but when Alan Jamieson and Todd Bond spotted a macrourid fish at 7259m, they knew they had seen something miraculous. Working with Imantes Priede, they reveal that the swimbladder of a 1 kg fish could hold 37.9 g of oxygen, sufficient to offset the weight of the fish's bones, and take 221-440 days to fill, which is plausible because it takes years for the fish to descend to such depths.
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.