Issues

Summary: This paper reviews the circuits that process magnetic information in birds and mice, assesses the utility of emerging technologies and asks questions that are critical for the advancement of the field.

Summary: Over the last 10 years, a more detailed picture of the reptilian immune system has come into view. This article describes how the reptile immune system recognizes and responds to potential pathogens as well as outlining emerging questions.

Summary: The oxidative status of amputated female orb-weaving spiders suggests that locomotory damage is physiologically costly, in contrast to genital mutilation by males, a trait that evolved under sexual selection.

Summary: In vivo continuous three-dimensional magnetic resonance microscopy enables precise and undisturbed analysis of the structural and compositional changes during the metamorphosis of the insects. However, this method has a lower spatial resolution than micro CT.

Summary: The effect of phase shift between kinetic and gravitational potential energy of the center of mass of the body in human walking.

Summary: Food processing of the newt Triturus carnifex varies with the type of food, but not with the medium in which feeding takes place.

Highlighted Article: The metabolic pace of life of a species relates not only to body mass and temperature, but also to predation regime and the interactive effects of all three of these factors.

Highlighted Article: During flapping flight, birds can increase wing velocity through increasing either wingbeat frequency or stroke amplitude. Work loop experiments demonstrate that increasing velocity via strain amplitude consistently increases net power.

Summary: Temperature effects on air breathing in an air-breathing fish are not consistent at the individual and group levels, suggesting that social dynamics can obscure links between physiology and behaviour.

Summary: The first molecular characterization of neuronal polarity in a cnidarian: tripolar ganglion neurons in the body column of a sea anemone extend equivalent neurites with no axo-dendritic specialization.

Summary: Thyroid hormones have been overlooked in the context of hormone-mediated maternal effects; mothers may regulate yolk thyroid hormone by regulating the concentration of the active form of the hormone in the circulation.

Highlighted Article: Mixing odorants together sometimes gives rise to utterly new perceptive qualities. A mixture that is treated in such a configural way by humans, rabbits and rodents also possesses this quality for an invertebrate, the honeybee.

Highlighted Article: Investigation into how fiddler crabs integrate their responses to simultaneous predatory threats provides evidence of predictive selective attention under naturalistic conditions in the field.

Summary: Nutrient and sediment loading decreased thermal performance and increased endosymbiont competition in the branching coral Pocillopora acuta, with elevated sites having lower percent cover in Mo′orea, French Polynesia.

Highlighted Article: Male serrate-legged small treefrogs can use visual or chemical cues to perceive females, and adjust calling strategies based on how they perceive the potential mates.

Summary: Evidence that patterns of ageing in oxidative status could differ substantially among conspecific populations, and that these differences might be an overlooked legacy of past biogeographic processes.

Summary: Low-frequency electroencephalogram oscillations (delta and alpha bands) may play vital roles in left-eye advantage during anti-predatory responses in the music frog (Nidirana daunchina).

Summary: Analysis of luminance detection thresholds of triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus) reveals that the receptor noise limited (RNL) model needs to be used with caution in an achromatic context.

Summary: Motoneurons require an amplification mechanism to operate within the firing frequencies observed during normal motor behaviour; this amplification mechanism is reduced after passive muscle stretching.

Highlighted Article: Thermogenic and cardiovascular adjustments favor an efficient activity–thermoregulation heat substitution phenomenon, providing king penguins with the aptitude to survive the tremendous energetic challenges imposed by a marine life.

Highlighted Article: Sea acclimatization improves mitochondrial coupling efficiency in skeletal muscle of king penguins, favoring an economical management of oxygen during dives.

Highlighted Article: Excessive levels of prostaglandins (PGs) are detrimental to animal survival and should be degraded; this study reports PG degradation with identification of genes encoding PG dehydrogenase (PGDH) and PG reductase (PGR) in a lepidopteran insect.

Summary: Activity and dieting both contribute to mass regulation in red knots, including predation-related decreases in body mass, and maintenance of body mass under changing food conditions.

Summary: Torpor as a strategy to conserve energy may be more common than previously thought in precocial developing chicks.

Summary: Functional investigation of cnidarian GIMAP genes using the anemone Exaiptasia pallida reveals that several are downregulated upon induction of processes associated with bleaching and disease.

Editor's choice: Fish sense the tactile features of surfaces with their fins using mechanosensory neurons with response properties similar to those of mammals.

Summary: The absence of the Hsp67Bc protein reduces cold tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster larvae and adults.

Summary: Stress-induced changes in surface temperature are mediated by social hierarchies and, as such, reveal trade-offs between thermoregulation and stress responsiveness in a temperate endotherm.