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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: A juvenile Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) floats with his head half-submerged in the water. The bodies of crocodilians are dotted with thousands of small, domed skin elevations that have been hypothesized to have a variety of sensory functions. Using alligators and crocodiles, Leitch and Catania (pp._4217−4230) have explored the structure and innervation of these receptors and have recorded neural activity related to their stimulation. They have found that the organs act as sensitive touch receptors − even surpassing the sensitivity of the human fingertip − and act in a number of predatory behaviors. Photo credit: D. Leitch. ?? ?? ?? ?? - PDF Icon PDF LinkTable of contents
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.
Mapping Neuromodulator expression in Octopus vulgaris – a Travelling Fellowship story
To develop her understanding of neural mapping, Federica Pizzulli, a PhD student from the Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms Department of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, used a Travelling Fellowship from Journal of Experimental Biology to visit the Seuntjens lab at KU Leuven, Belgium – the first lab to adapt in-situ Hybridization Chain Reaction (HCR) to Octopus vulgaris. Read more about our Travelling Fellowships here.
Revealing the secrets of sleep
Research spanning 20 years has illuminated the universal nature of sleep across species, from mammals to cnidaria. Rhea Lakhiani and colleagues explore sleep phenomenology, physiology and function through the lens of comparative physiology.
Thirsty snakes want to keep cool
Even though cooling down to digest dinner is a risky strategy - it takes longer leaving reptiles vulnerable to attack - thirsty Children's pythons find a cooler spot and now Jill Azzolini & co have discovered that the parched reptiles choose to keep cool to conserve water.
