Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: During winter, tegu lizards, Salvator merianae, aestivate for up to 5 months, retreating to burrows and halting most activities. Dormant tegus also reduce their gastrointestinal mass, which allows a substantial energy economy but implies that the first post-dormancy digestion would be more costly than subsequent feeding episodes because of gastrointestinal atrophy. To address this, Gavira et al. (JEB176156) determined the postprandial metabolic response of the first, second and subsequent feeding episodes following dormancy. Seasonal fasting imposes an extra digestion cost to tegus following their next feeding. However, this surplus cost is negligible compared with the overall energetic savings from gastrointestinal tract atrophy during the dormancy period. Photo credit: R. S. B. Gavira.
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INSIDE JEB
REVIEW
Aquatic–terrestrial transitions of feeding systems in vertebrates: a mechanical perspective
Summary: Any aquatic vertebrate aiming for a terrestrial lifestyle must change from its aquatic to a terrestrial feeding mechanism, and we synthesize mechanical challenges associated with such aquatic–terrestrial transitions in vertebrates.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Contribution of active atrial contraction to cardiac output in anesthetized American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)
Summary: Ligation of both atria had little effect on cardiac output in anesthetized American alligators and, surprisingly, increased pulmonary blood flow. This suggests atria have a non-essential role in ventricular filling.
Energetic costs of performance in trained and untrained Anolis carolinensis lizards
Summary: Locomotor performance training modifies baseline metabolic expenditure such that trained animals have lower resting metabolic costs than controls.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Cuticular gas exchange by Antarctic sea spiders
Editors' choice: Sea spiders are a group of arthropods that lack gills but still grow to large sizes; cuticular pores facilitate oxygen diffusion in large species to meet their metabolic demands.
Brain mitochondrial bioenergetics change with rapid and prolonged shifts in aggression in the honey bee, Apis mellifera
Summary: Brain mitochondrial function changes with aggressive social interactions and corresponds to age-related shifts in aggression in the honey bee.
The effects of lateral line ablation and regeneration in schooling giant danios
Summary: Giant danios cannot school normally 2 weeks after lateral line ablation, even though the sensory hair cells have fully regenerated.
Suppression of reactive oxygen species generation in heart mitochondria from anoxic turtles: the role of complex I S-nitrosation
Summary: Heart mitochondria show suppressed reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation when isolated from anoxic turtles. Surprisingly, complex I S-nitrosation, a potent modification inhibiting ROS production, is not involved in this response.
Detection and direction discrimination of single vortex rings by harbour seals (Phoca vitulina)
Summary: Harbour seals are able to detect a variety of different vortex rings and are capable of analysing the travel direction of a single vortex ring perceived by the mystacial vibrissae.
Surface friction alters the agility of a small Australian marsupial
Summary: Little is known about how terrain affects an animal's agility; we establish that a low-friction surface reduces agility and decreases the movement speeds chosen by a small marsupial.
Environmental acoustic cues guide the biosonar attention of a highly specialised echolocator
Summary: Sensory specialisations, such as echolocation, usually improve perception, but often come with costs. Echolocating bats can trade off these costs by combining two types of acoustic information, active echolocation and passive hearing.
HSP90 regulates larval settlement of the bryozoan Bugula neritina through the nitric oxide pathway
Summary: HSP90 mediates the larval settlement process of Bugula neritina by interacting with the NO pathway.
Resistance to DNA damage and enhanced DNA repair capacity in the hypoxia-tolerant blind mole rat Spalax carmeli
Highlighted Article: The cells of the blind mole rat Spalax carmeli show enhanced DNA repair capacity and resistance to several genotoxic agents, which may contribute to its longevity and reduced cancer rates.
Are the surface areas of the gills and body involved with changing metabolic scaling with temperature?
Summary: In the goldfish, temperature positively affects metabolic level but negatively affects the scaling exponent of resting metabolic rate, supporting the metabolic-level boundaries hypothesis.
Microsurgical manipulation reveals pre-copulatory function of key genital sclerites
Summary: Insect genitalia are fashioned from numerous constituent parts but the function of individual components is poorly understood. Microsurgical manipulation reveals the parameres and end-plate to be crucial in securing copulation in Callosobruchus maculatus.
Thermal strategies vary with life history stage
Summary: Littorina obtusata employs different thermal strategies at different life-history stages, suggesting an adaptive trade-off between acute and chronic thermal tolerance. Predictions of the impact of global warming based on only adult responses may underestimate vulnerability.
Light exposure enhances urea absorption in the fluted giant clam, Tridacna squamosa, and up-regulates the protein abundance of a light-dependent urea active transporter, DUR3-like, in its ctenidium
Highlighted Article: The fluted giant clam, Tridacna squamosa, expresses a urea active transporter, DUR3-like, in its ctenidium which may participate in light-enhanced urea absorption.
The consequences of seasonal fasting during the dormancy of tegu lizards (Salvator merianae) on their postprandial metabolic response
Summary: Long-term fasting of tegu lizards during seasonal dormancy imposes extra digestion costs for GI tract regrowth post-dormancy but this is negligible compared with the overall energetic savings from GI tract atrophy.
Hand pressures during arboreal locomotion in captive bonobos (Pan paniscus)
Highlighted Article: Bonobo digit pressures are significantly greater during arboreal knuckle-walking than during either vertical or suspensory locomotion, and the thumb experiences low or no pressure during all locomotor modes.
Critical thermal limits of bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) are marked by stereotypical behaviors and are unchanged by acclimation, age or feeding status
Summary: Stereotypical behaviors at extreme temperatures correspond to loss of muscular function, and yield repeatable estimates of CTmin and CTmax for bumble bees.
Emersion behaviour underlies variation in gill morphology and aquatic respiratory function in the amphibious fish Kryptolebias marmoratus
Summary: Amphibious fishes may respond to hypoxic water by escaping and breathing air, rather than improving aquatic respiratory function, in contrast to typical water-breathing species.
Differences in stress and disease resilience related to emergence time for first feeding in farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Summary: The neuroendocrine response to acute stress and repeated stress of farmed juvenile rainbow trout is related to their individual time of emergence, but has no influence on their performance in captivity.
Harnessing physiological research for smarter environmental policy

In their Perspective, Alexia Dubuc and colleagues discuss strategies to strengthen collaboration, communication and engagement between physiological researchers and environmental policy makers to ensure that conservation strategies address the threats posed by climate change.
JEB grants to support junior faculty

Learn about the grants that we launched in 2023 to support junior faculty from two of our awardees: Erin Leonard, Early-Career Researcher (ECR) Visiting Fellowship recipient, and Pauline Fleischmann, Research Partnership Kickstart Travel Grant recipient. The next deadline to apply is 28 November 2025.
Early testing could make risky falls a thing of the past for elderly people

Falls cost healthcare systems billions each year, but there may be a solution. Jiaen Wu and colleagues of Stanford University, USA, suggest that measuring the way someone walks before they get old might let doctors know who is at risk for a potentially life-threatening fall in the future.
Ecosystem engineers on tropical reefs in transition

Giant barrel sponges (GSBs) remain robust to rising seawater temperatures and have rapidly populated reefs stripped of coral cover by climate change. GBSs may be poised to become the dominant habitat-forming organisms in tropical reef ecosystems of the future. In this Review, Joseph Pawlik provides an integrative and critical assessment of research on giant barrel sponges.
Fast & Fair peer review

Our sister journal Biology Open has recently launched the next phase of their Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. To learn more about BiO’s progress and future plans, read the Editorial by Daniel Gorelick, or visit the Fast & Fair peer review page.