Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: One of only two species confirmed to use extraocular vision, the red brittle star, Ophiomastix wendtii, shelters from predatory fish during the day and orients to areas of contrast using photoreceptors spread across its body surface. Sumner-Rooney et al. (jeb236653) tested the performance and uses of this poorly understood visual system and found that animals were best able to locate large (40–50 deg), high-contrast stimuli, consistent with estimates for both photoreceptor optical sensitivity and acceptance angles. Animals were also found to move faster and more directly when presented with any size stimulus, and to respond to shadows moving overhead, hinting at additional uses for predator evasion. Photo credit: Lauren Sumner-Rooney.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
REVIEW
The evolutionary biomechanics of locomotor function in giant land animals
Summary: Examining size-related changes in living and extinct taxa reveals that giant land tetrapods become less athletic during their evolution; however, there are multiple evolutionary solutions to the constraints associated with giant size.
COMMENTARY
Biological scaling analyses are more than statistical line fitting
Summary: Choice of body size scaling methods should depend not only on statistically fitting the best line but also on their biological significance and theoretical value.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Snowflake morays, Echidna nebulosa, exhibit similar feeding kinematics in terrestrial and aquatic treatments
Summary: Body elongation and pharyngeal transport facilitates prey capture and swallowing on land for the snowflake moray, Echidna nebulosa.
Low repeatability of aversive learning in zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Summary: Zebrafish trained to avoid colour stimuli through negative associations with a mild electric shock show very low repeatability estimates, suggesting that individuals were not distinguishable by their aversive learning ability.
A test of altitude-related variation in aerobic metabolism of Andean birds
Summary: Measurements of aerobic metabolism in Andean passerine species pairs with contrasting elevational ranges revealed that metabolic rates are higher in most highland species, but there is no uniform elevational trend.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Does the choosiness of female crickets change as they age?
Summary: Exposure of female crickets to variations in song patterns over their lifetime does not reveal a broadening of female preference nor support the hypothesis that female choosiness towards song patterns changes with age.
Visual perception and camouflage response to 3D backgrounds and cast shadows in the European cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis
Highlighted Article: Cuttlefish visually perceive 3D objects, then camouflage with a 3D pattern: they firstly assess the scene, then camouflage categorically. Unlike in humans, cast shadows are not perceived as a depth cue.
How head shape and substrate particle size affect fossorial locomotion in lizards
Summary: Locomotor performance in fossorial lizards is affected by the thickness, slope and pointiness of the head and by substrate particle characteristics, being enhanced by narrow heads and bodies and in fine particles.
Visual and movement memories steer foraging bumblebees along habitual routes
Summary: Similar to a skier slaloming downhill, bumblebees are guided by visual and movement memories on their way back to the nest.
Molecular changes associated with migratory departure from wintering areas in obligate songbird migrants
Summary: Obligate songbird migrants show comprehensive changes in hypothalamic gene and protein expression in response to increasing spring photoperiods that may aid in their decision when to migrate from wintering areas.
Navigational strategies underlying temporal phototaxis in Drosophila larvae
Summary: A novel closed-loop behavioral assay shows that Drosophila larvae can navigate light gradients exclusively using temporal cues. Larvae are hypothesized to achieve this by integrating brightness change during runs.
The temperature sensitivity of memory formation and persistence is altered by cold acclimation in a pond snail
Summary: A cold block inhibits long-term memory formation in inbred laboratory-reared strain Lymnaea, but not in freshly collected Lymnaea or their F1 laboratory-reared offspring. Susceptibility to the cold block may have been selected for inadvertently.
Mouse vocal emission and acoustic complexity do not scale linearly with the size of a social group
Summary: A sound source localization system and a novel method for categorizing ultrasonic vocalizations reveal vocal emissions of male and female mice change between social and isolated contexts.
Run and hide: visual performance in a brittle star
Summary: Brittle star responses to static visual stimuli of varying size and contrast show that visually guided habitat selection requires large, high-contrast stimuli. Responses to the appearance of overhead shadows reveal additional uses for photoreception in defensive behaviours.
Wolbachia manipulate fitness benefits of olfactory associative learning in a parasitoid wasp
Summary:Wolbachia manipulates the olfactory associative learning of its parasitic wasp host; thus, the wasp responds to all reward values similarly, while uninfected wasps respond by considering the reward's potential fitness benefit.
Effects of early-life conditions on innate immune function in adult zebra finches
Summary: Developmental hardship has many long-term implications, but its effects on adult immune function are unknown. We found no effects of a developmental manipulation on innate immune function during adulthood in zebra finches.
Boat noise interferes with Lusitanian toadfish acoustic communication
Summary: Two different types of boat noise have a detrimental effect in the communication active space and on the vocal behaviour of a toadfish.
11-Deoxycortisol is a stress responsive and gluconeogenic hormone in a jawless vertebrate, the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Highlighted Article: The first direct evidence for the gluconeogenic activity of 11-deoxycortisol in an agnathan, indicating that corticosteroid regulation of plasma glucose is a basal trait among vertebrates.
Alligators employ intermetatarsal reconfiguration to modulate plantigrade ground contact
Summary: We measured 3D metatarsal kinematics in American alligators. Alligator metatarsals conform with the ground across a diversity of high walk and maneuvering postures, providing a context for interpreting the evolutionary history of metatarsals in the fossil record.
Hard limits to cognitive flexibility: ants can learn to ignore but not avoid pheromone trails
Summary: Although Lasius niger ants immediately learn to avoid odours, they fail to avoid pheromone trails when they are associated with a punishment; however, they learn to ignore trails by developing simple heuristics.
Using the reactive scope model to redefine social stress in fishes

In their Review, Katie Gilmour and colleagues redefine the ambiguous concept of social stress by using the reactive scope model as a framework to explain the divergent physiological phenotypes of dominant and subordinate fishes.
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 6 June 2025.
Thirteen-lined ground squirrels survive extraordinarily low blood oxygen

Brynne Duffy and colleagues reveal that thirteen-lined ground squirrels are true hypoxia champions surviving extreme low blood oxygen, down to just 34% oxygen, when they emerge briefly from hibernation.
The Company of Biologists Workshops

For the last 15 years, our publisher, The Company of Biologists, has provided an apt environment to inspire biology and support biologists through our Workshops series. Read about the evolution of the Workshop series and revisit JEB's experience with hosting the first Global South Workshop.
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.