Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Sound localization is key to reproduction in many animals, including frogs, in which silent females approach and initiate matings with acoustically signaling males. Using laser vibrometry, Christensen-Dalsgaard and colleagues (jeb232421) investigated the role of a lung-to-ear sound transmission pathway unique to amphibians in shaping the inherent directionality of the frog's internally coupled eardrums. Whether a female's lungs were inflated or deflated had no impact on the directional response of her eardrum to frequencies emphasized in male mating calls. These findings reject a longstanding hypothesis that the frog's lungs also function to improve the localization of calling males. Photo credit: Norman Lee.
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INSIDE JEB
OBITUARY
COMMENTARY
Individual variation and the biomechanics of maneuvering flight in hummingbirds
Summary: An analytical approach for voluntary behavior in hummingbirds suggests four broad hypotheses for the biomechanics of manuevering flight.
REVIEW
Mitochondria and the thermal limits of ectotherms
Summary: New perspectives and methodologies for investigating the thermal limits of mitochondrial performance suggest that these organelles may play a role in shaping thermal limits at the organismal level.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
The bite force–gape relationship as an avenue of biomechanical adaptation to trophic niche in two salmonid fishes
Summary: The jaw muscles of two salmon species produce maximum bite force at different gape sizes, highlighting muscle physiology as an important axis of functional feeding variation.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
The colour of success: does female mate choice rely on male colour change in the chameleon Furcifer pardalis?
Highlighted Article: Female panther chameleons choose mates based on specific aspects of colour change in courting males, both in the visible and the UV range.
Level-wise differences in in vivo lateral bending moment are associated with microstructural alterations in bovine caudal intervertebral discs
Summary: A dynamic analytical model of the motion and analysis of muscle cross-sections indicate that different joint levels in the bovine tail are subjected to different mechanical load magnitudes, resulting in variation in intervertebral disc microstructure.
Lung-to-ear sound transmission does not improve directional hearing in green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea)
Summary: Contrary to prevailing views on the mechanisms of hearing in frogs, the lung-to-ear pathway for sound transmission does not improve directional hearing in these vociferous vertebrates.
Gills versus kidney for ionoregulation in the obligate air-breathing Arapaima gigas, a fish with a kidney in its air-breathing organ
Summary: In this unique air-breathing fish, the kidney is more important than gills in ionoregulation, and is significant in nitrogen excretion; gill ion transport is sensitive to oxygen in both air and water.
Differential tissue stiffness of body column facilitates locomotion of Hydra on solid substrates
Summary: The Hydra somersault is facilitated by differential stiffness contributed by the organization of collagen fibers in the extracellular matrix. The extracellular matrix assumes a pseudo-skeletal property important for locomotion.
Remoras pick where they stick on blue whales
Highlighted Article: Analysis of previously undocumented skimming and sliding behaviors used by remoras reveals they preferentially adhere to areas with reduced drag on blue whales.
Glucose transporter expression and regulation following a fast in the ruby-throated hummingbird, Archilochus colubris
Highlighted Article: Hummingbirds ingest nectar rich in glucose and fructose; when fasted, tissue capacity for circulating glucose import declines while remaining elevated for fructose. This may underlie maintenance of high blood glucose and rapid depletion of blood fructose.
Different microcircuit responses to comparable input from one versus both copies of an identified projection neuron
Summary: Co-stimulating both copies of an identified modulatory projection neuron at the same combined firing rate used for single copy stimulation results in different microcircuit output.
Both maternal and embryonic exposure to mild hypoxia influence embryonic development of the intertidal gastropod Littorina littorea
Summary: Maternal and embryonic exposure to mild hypoxia influence timings of developmental events, whereas aspects of embryo morphology and overall development time were influenced only by embryonic exposure to mild hypoxia.
Cost of a deprived environment – increased intraspecific aggression and susceptibility to pathogen infections
Summary: Depriving captive fish of structural enrichment increases disease susceptibility, causing elevated pathogen burden and host metabolism. Furthermore, fish from deprived environments demonstrate higher levels of aggression.
Gonads or body? Differences in gonadal and somatic photoperiodic growth response in two vole species
Summary: Development of the neuroendocrine system driving photoperiodic responses in gonadal and somatic growth differs between the common and the tundra vole, indicating that they use a different breeding strategy.
High light alongside elevated PCO2 alleviates thermal depression of photosynthesis in a hard coral (Pocillopora acuta)
Summary: Ocean chemistry, light and temperature are changing under climate change. These changes have a synergistic impact on metabolic processes involved in energy acquisition in a coral–algal symbiosis.
Heat and water loss versus shelter: a dilemma in thermoregulatory decision making for a retreat-dwelling nocturnal gecko
Summary: Duration of heating but not voluntary thermal maximum predicted water loss in a cool-climate viviparous gecko.
Lunge filter feeding biomechanics constrain rorqual foraging ecology across scale
Summary: Morphology predicts behavior and physiological performance, which for rorquals results in both biomechanical and ecological constraints.
Visual acuity and egg spatial chromatic contrast predict egg rejection behavior of American robins
Summary: We used 3D-printed model eggs with checkered patterns of varying dimensions to test how chromatic visual acuity affects egg recognition in an avian brood parasite host species, the American robin.
Laryngeal and soft palate valving in the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina)
Summary: Seals possess unique anatomical modifications that may act as accessory ‘valving’ mechanisms in their upper airway to assist in underwater feeding.
Biosonar spatial resolution along the distance axis: revisiting the clutter interference zone
Summary: Echolocating bats perceive absolute distance to objects by measuring the time delay between call and echo. In addition, they possess spatial resolution along the distance axis.
Life stages differ in plasticity to temperature fluctuations and uniquely contribute to adult phenotype in Onthophagus taurus dung beetles
Summary: Life stages differ in thermal plasticity to increased temperature fluctuations, which may affect how some organisms fare under a warming climate.
Vision does not impact walking performance in Argentine ants
Summary: Argentine ants plunged into darkness do not slow down while walking on flat and uneven terrain or while approaching and crossing a step obstacle.
Endurance and sprint training affect immune function differently in green anole lizards (Anolis carolinensis)
Summary: Increased allocation to different types of locomotor performance (endurance versus sprinting) results in complex trade-offs with the immune system that are not caused by energy limitation alone.
Mechanical induction of oscillatory movement in demembranated, immotile flagella of sea urchin sperm at very low ATP concentrations
Summary: Essential conditions to induce oscillatory movements of eukaryotic flagella under sub-threshold ATP concentrations were clarified.
High temperature induces transcriptomic changes in Crassostrea gigas that hinder progress of ostreid herpesvirus (OsHV-1) and promote survival
Summary: New insights into the mechanisms underlying the high survival of oysters infected with OsHV-1 at 29°C, inducing host physiological processes that are unfavorable to the viral infection.
GABA metabolism is crucial for long-term survival of anoxia in annual killifish embryos
Summary: Anoxic annual killifish embryos produce millimolar quantities of GABA. Interruptions in GABA metabolism decrease anoxia tolerance. We propose that GABA supports anoxia tolerance as a neurotransmitter and an anti-oxidant.
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.
Travelling Fellowships from JEB

Our Travelling Fellowships offer up to £3,000 to graduate students and post-doctoral researchers wishing to make collaborative visits to other laboratories. Next deadline to apply is 27 October 2023
Feedforward and feedback control in the neuromechanics

Auke J. Ijspeert and Monica A. Daley provide an overview of key knowledge gained from comparative vertebrate experiments and insights obtained from neuromechanical simulations and robotic approaches. Read the full Centenary Review Article here.
Light fine-tunes electric fish pulses to keep them in the shade

Weakly electric fish perceive their surroundings through electric chirrups and now Ana Camargo & colleagues have revealed that light fine-tunes the fish's electric pulses to ensure that they remain scheduled beneath the mats of vegetation they use for shelter, avoiding penetrating beams of light that could give them away.