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Close ModalCover: Contrary to common knowledge and most text books in comparative physiology, it is now known that giraffes – the tallest living animal on Earth – do not have a particularly large heart, and it has been enigmatic, therefore, how they achieve the high blood pressures required to perfuse the brain. Based on ultrasound and measurements of blood pressures within the beating hearts of anaesthetized giraffes, Smerup et al. (pp. 457-463) demonstrate that the circumference of the giraffe heart is smaller than that of similar-sized mammals, which allows for a thicker ventricle wall that, in conjunction with the reduced inner diameter, serves to normalize wall tension.
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CLASSICS
SHORT COMMUNICATION
The effects of hypoxic bradycardia and extracellular HCO3−/CO2 on hypoxic performance in the eel heart
Summary: Bradycardia (slowed heart rate) substantially improves hypoxia tolerance of eel myocardium, but its specific effect is dependent on extracellular bicarbonate and CO2 concentrations.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Menthol-induced bleaching rapidly and effectively provides experimental aposymbiotic sea anemones (Aiptasia sp.) for symbiosis investigations
Summary: An optimised method using menthol for the production of aposymbiotic Aiptasia sp. to further our understanding of the cnidarian–dinoflagellate symbiosis.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
European shags optimize their flight behavior according to wind conditions
Highlighted Article: European shags adjust flight behavior to utilize wind power to minimize the cost of take-off and cruising flight.
Feed-forward motor control of ultrafast, ballistic movements
Summary: Mantis shrimp raptorial strikes occur too quickly for real-time neural control; instead, control of the strike kinematics occurs before the strikes begin by varying extensor muscle activity and spring compression.
Big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) emit intense search calls and fly in stereotyped flight paths as they forage in the wild
Summary: Field recordings of Eptesicus fuscus reveal highly intense source levels and stereotypic flight behaviour, potentially as a strategy to optimize foraging efficiency by minimizing sensory processing load.
Comparative limb bone loading in the humerus and femur of the tiger salamander: testing the ‘mixed-chain’ hypothesis for skeletal safety factors
Summary: Safety factors against skeletal failure differ between the forelimbs and hindlimbs of salamanders; this may relate to differing locomotor roles, potentially bearing on the invasion of land by vertebrates.
Diet-induced phenotypic plasticity in European eel (Anguilla anguilla)
Highlighted Article: Diet differences lead to head shape dimorphism in European eel; this occurs at a much earlier stage than was originally thought.
Tail loss and narrow surfaces decrease locomotor stability in the arboreal green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis)
Summary: Lizards that have lost their tail show kinematic signs of instability but run more quickly on narrow surfaces, suggesting that being stable is not essential to steady, high-performance locomotion.
The association between parental life history and offspring phenotype in Atlantic salmon
Summary: The duration of early and later life stages of both parents (i.e. their life history) may have a significant influence on offspring traits in salmon.
Convergence of joint mechanics in independently evolving, articulated coralline algae
Summary: Joints have evolved three times in coralline algae. Despite these independent origins, coralline joints are universally strong and extensible, which reflects the unique biomechanical challenges they face in wave-swept environments.
Volumetric flow imaging reveals the importance of vortex ring formation in squid swimming tail-first and arms-first
Summary: Multi-propulsor squids produce complex 3D vortex wake flows while swimming arms-first and tail-first, as revealed by 3D jet/fin force and propulsive efficiency measurements.
XROMM analysis of rib kinematics during lung ventilation in the green iguana, Iguana iguana
Summary: During breathing, rotation of the ribs in green iguanas is nearly hinge-like, despite costal joints that permit more complex motions.
Accelerated behavioural development changes fine-scale search behaviour and spatial memory in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)
Summary: Honey bees that begin foraging precociously perform poorly in a test of spatial memory compared with normal-aged foragers, implying there is a cost to this accelerated behavioural development in terms of reduced cognitive ability.
Comparative analysis of fertility signals and sex-specific cuticular chemical profiles of Odontomachus trap-jaw ants
Highlighted Article: Fertility signals are not conserved in four species of Odontomachus trap-jaw ants: male signals are more conserved, but are species specific. Bioassays implicate newly discovered compounds as fertility signals for O. ruginodis.
Dynamics and thermal sensitivity of ballistic and non-ballistic feeding in salamanders
Summary: Tongue projection powered by elastic recoil has greater performance and thermal robustness than projection powered by muscle contraction, as revealed by comparison of two species of salamanders with different projector muscle architecture.
Feast or flee: bioelectrical regulation of feeding and predator evasion behaviors in the planktonic alveolate Favella sp. (Spirotrichia)
Summary: The marine ciliate Favella sp., a model planktonic alveolate, has complex behavioral responses to prey and predators that are underpinned by sophisticated bioelectrical signaling mechanisms.
The thick left ventricular wall of the giraffe heart normalises wall tension, but limits stroke volume and cardiac output
Summary: A left ventricular cavity and low stroke volume characterise the giraffe heart, resulting in typical mammalian left ventricular wall tensions but lowered cardiac output.
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.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
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Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
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.
