1. The standard rate of oxygen consumption, ventilatory frequency and heart rate of adult Lampetra fluviatilis were measured during the light phase of the photoperiod and at times corresponding to various stages in the upstream migration. 2. All three parameters increased during the spawning run but only in mature individuals were significant differences found between the sexes. 3. The regression coefficients for the logarithmic relationship between oxygen consumption and body weight of immature animals were 0.912 and 0.925 at 9.5 and 16 degrees C respectively. 4. Both the standard rate of oxygen consumption and the amount of oxygen taken up during activity increased greatly during the hours of darkness. 5. Oxygen consumption, ventilatory frequency and, to a lesser extent, heart rate increased significantly at 9.5 degrees C over the 100–20% range of saturation with air. 6. Below 20% saturation with air, lampreys no longer remained attached by their oral disc for prolonged periods and the ventilatory frequency rose even more rapidly to reach a maximum of 175 beats/min at 12.5%. Exposure to 7.5% resulted in death within 5–8 h.
In the field: an interview with Sönke Johnsen
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Sönke Johnsen is a Professor at Duke University, USA, investigating visual ecology and he talks about his experiences of collecting transparent animals while blue water diving and in a submersible, as well as outrunning Hurricane Katrina.
Call for new preLighters
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preLights is the preprint highlighting community supported by The Company of Biologists. At the heart of preLights are our preLighters: early-career researchers who select and write about interesting new preprints for the research community. We are currently looking for new preLighters to join our team. Find out more and apply here.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Cleaner fish are potential super-spreaders
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Bluestreak cleaner wrasse spend their days pecking parasites off the skins of other fish, but now Pauline Narvaez & co have found that they may also be inadvertent super-spreaders. Parasitic flatworms can hitch a ride on the cleaners to reach their next host.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
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In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
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