Issues

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.

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.

Summary: Body elongation and pharyngeal transport facilitates prey capture and swallowing on land for the snowflake moray, Echidna nebulosa.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Summary: Similar to a skier slaloming downhill, bumblebees are guided by visual and movement memories on their way back to the nest.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Summary: Two different types of boat noise have a detrimental effect in the communication active space and on the vocal behaviour of a toadfish.

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.

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.

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.