Issues

Summary: Understanding the different research foci of communication studies – specifically animal and science communication – can stimulate new research questions and approaches in each field.

Summary: Clearing cuticular pigmentation in beetles by gene silencing enables the use of intact appendages for fluorescence in situ hybridisation.

Summary: Experimental manipulations in male house finches indicate that elevated temperature has no direct effect on the timing of reproductive preparations, but does influence the transition from breeding to molt.

Summary: Vacuolar-type H⁺-ATPase (VHA) plays a convergent role in promoting Symbiodinium photosynthesis in giant clams and corals, suggesting VHA as a common exaptation for carbon concentration in marine photosymbioses.

Summary: Disentangling the role of body size and substrate size in scaling of flatfish burial reveals constraints on burial performance with large particles and at large body sizes.

Highlighted Article: It is possible to increase the stability of a gait by limping over unstable phases and maximizing the time spent in the stable phases of a stride.

Highlighted Article: The rate of force production and active leg muscle volume can almost completely account for the metabolic cost of human running.

Summary: Late stage snapping turtle embryos present increased oxygen carrying capacity and decreased cardiac output index and heart rate, which contribute to the reported patterns of turtle whole-egg V̇_O2.

Highlighted Article: Anoxic hibernation can weaken the painted turtle's plastron, but the duration of aquatic overwintering, regardless of oxygenation state, may be more important in determining its mechanical properties at spring emergence.

Highlighted Article: Despite the colossal size of the amphibious male northern elephant seal, these animals can move on land, but terrestrial locomotion is limited because of their aquatic specializations.

Summary: Observation of the rotation of pearls in grafted oysters indicates that the movement of pearls is independent of temperature. But an excessive temperature of 34°C hinders the formation of pearls.

Summary: Species-specific differences in oyster physiology are reflected at the cellular and molecular level by differential specialization of hemocytes on immunity and biomineralization.

Summary: Salamanders from warmer localities may be more resilient to climate warming because they increase ingestion to counterbalance the energetic demands of elevated temperatures, whereas those from cooler localities do not.

Summary: We unravel the functional mechanism responsible for the adaptive increase in hemoglobin–oxygen affinity and its allosteric regulation in bar-headed goose, a hypoxia-tolerant species renowned for its high-altitude migratory flights.

Summary: Quantitative study of the bi-directional flow of ants (Camponotus japonicus) on a narrow path highlights the importance of cooperation to maintain movement efficiency.

Highlighted Article: A sea otter demonstrates sensitive, rapid touch using either paw or whiskers, both in air and under water. Tactile sensitivity is comparable with that of other tactile specialists, including humans.

Summary: Changes in insect ventilation patterns are not primarily driven by metabolic rate, but rather by movement. Water loss rates are driven by metabolic rate independent of ventilation pattern.

Summary: Echolocating bats increase production of temporally clustered sonar calls when tracking targets with unpredictable trajectories, providing evidence that bats control sonar signal timing for increased spatiotemporal resolution and sensorimotor planning.

Summary: Motor control of locomotor muscles in geckos changes in response to altered demands that occur with tail autotomy, demonstrating the complex relationship between muscle function and locomotion.