Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The machinery for calcium transport in the placenta of the viviparous matrotrophic lizard Mabuya sp. was co-opted from tissues elsewhere in the vertebrate bodyplan. Hernández and colleagues (jeb237891) demonstrate that transcripts of the calcium transporters trpv6, cabp28k, cabp9k and pmca are expressed in the placental tissues and gradually increase in abundance through pregnancy stages. Additionally, immunofluorescence revealed expression of CABP28K/9K proteins in specific regions of the mature placenta. The composition shows a female and two embryonic chambers at different stages of development, and expression of CABP28K and CABP9K proteins in placental tissues. Photo credit: lizard, Elson Meneses Pelayo; early embryo, Francisca Leal; late embryo, tissues and cover composition, Nathaly Hernández.
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INSIDE JEB
REVIEW
Neuroethology of number sense across the animal kingdom
Summary: This Review considers the fundamentally different types of brains of diverse and distantly related animal species that give rise to number skills across the animal kingdom.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Continuous body 3-D reconstruction of limbless animals
Summary: A method for 3-D reconstruction of the continuous body of limbless animals achieves higher accuracy than the widely used B-spline method and is useful for quantifying body–environment interactions.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Quantifying energetic costs and defining energy landscapes experienced by grizzly bears
Highlighted Article: Analysis of movement costs and characteristics of landscape use by grizzly bears reveals inherent similarities in travel between grizzly bears and humans, increasing the risk of encounters on shared landscapes.
Experience, but not age, is associated with volumetric mushroom body expansion in solitary alkali bees
Summary: Solitary bees experience neuroanatomical growth in response to social experience, but similar changes do not occur with age. This reveals how neuroplasticity may be related to social evolution.
Epigenetic potential affects immune gene expression in house sparrows
Highlighted Article: The number of CpG sites in the promoter of a microbial surveillance gene (TLR4) predicted gene expression in house sparrows in a tissue- and sex-specific manner.
Echolocation click parameters and biosonar behaviour of the dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima)
Highlighted Article: Dwarf sperm whales produce echolocation clicks with short-range characteristics that are counterintuitive for their use in deep-diving foraging contexts in the open ocean.
Combined secondary compounds naturally found in nectars enhance honeybee cognition and survival
Summary: Caffeine and l-arginine, secondary compounds found in nectar, can improve honeybee cognitive skills and survival when presented in combination, rather than individually.
Independent effects of seawater pH and high PCO2 on olfactory sensitivity in fish: possible role of carbonic anhydrase
Summary: Ocean acidification reduces olfactory sensitivity in fish; this is due to both the reduction in pH and a direct effect of increased CO2.
Controlled expression of the migratory phenotype affects oxidative status in birds
Summary: The emergence of the migratory phenotype in birds is associated with changes in oxidative status.
Sound detection by the American lobster (Homarus americanus)
Summary: American lobsters detect low-frequency sounds, with best sensitivity in the frequency range (80–120 Hz) of the buzzing sounds they are known to produce, supporting their use in intraspecific communication.
Masculinized Drosophila females adapt their fighting strategies to their opponent
Summary: Genetically masculinized female Drosophilamelanogaster change their fighting strategy depending on the sexual identity of their opponents. With more aggressive flies, these females adapt to higher intensity levels.
Effects of wave-driven water flow on the fast-start escape response of juvenile coral reef damselfishes
Summary: Effects of wave-driven flow on the behavioural and kinematic components of fish escape responses depend on body morphology and the timing and trajectory of escape responses in relation to the wave phase.
Effects of food intake and hydration state on behavioral thermoregulation and locomotor activity in the tropidurid lizard Tropidurus catalanensis
Summary: Behavioral thermoregulation in Tropidurus catalanensis is affected by food consumption and not by hydration state. Additionally, thermoregulation mediated by food consumption does not conflict with the lizards’ locomotor activity.
Cardiorespiratory adjustments to chronic environmental warming improve hypoxia tolerance in European perch (Perca fluviatilis)
Summary: European perch can adjust physiological traits during chronic warming to promote hypoxia tolerance, suggesting that eurythermal fishes may be relatively robust to chronic warming and hypoxic events under climate change.
Dramatic changes in mitochondrial substrate use at critically high temperatures: a comparative study using Drosophila
Highlighted Article:Drosophila mitochondrial functions persist at temperatures above organismal heat limits but turn to oxidation of alternative substrates as complex I-supported respiration is impaired.
The frugivorous bat Carollia perspicillata dynamically changes echolocation parameters in response to acoustic playback
Summary: The frugivorous bat Carollia perspicillata dynamically adjusts different echolocation parameters when echolocating in acoustically contaminated environments.
Improving spring–mass parameter estimation in running using nonlinear regression methods
Summary: A new method to estimate the spring–mass characteristics of runners is presented using nonlinear regression techniques with vertical ground reaction force recordings, which yields spring-mass parameter sets that produce more stable simulated running.
The ROS scavenger PDTC affects adaptation to treadmill running in mice: distinct effects on murine body mass, resting heart rate and skeletal muscle fiber type composition
Summary: The ROS scavenger PDTC decreases murine heart rate, both alone and in combination with exercise, and modulates skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise at multiple levels.
Auditory perception of self and others in zebra finches: evidence from an operant discrimination task
Highlighted Article: Zebra finches can discriminate vocalisations of familiar from those of unfamiliar conspecifics even when all sing the same song; some classified their own song as familiar and might thus have recognised themselves.
Aversive operant conditioning alters the phototactic orientation of the marbled crayfish
Summary: Long-term alternation of phototactic behaviour in the marbled crayfish by aversive operant conditionings is mediated by new protein synthesis through the cAMP/PKA/CREB signal cascade.
Parallel evolution of placental calcium transfer in the lizard Mabuya and eutherian mammals
Summary: Analysis of calcium transporter expression in the highly placentotrophic lizard Mabuya indicates the parallel co-option of calcium transporter genes in lizard and mammalian placentation.
Temperature adaptations of the thermophilic snail Echinolittorina malaccana: insights from metabolomic analysis
Highlighted Article: Cardiac physiology, enzyme activity and metabolomic analyses revealed the physiological adaptations to heat of Echinolittorina malaccana, including depressed cardiac activity, metabolic depression and alterations in glycerophospholipid metabolism.
Visual stimulus-specific habituation of innate defensive behaviour in mice
Summary: Mice freeze in response to stimuli moving overhead. This defensive behaviour habituates with repeated exposure in a stimulus-specific way.
Effect of density and species preferences on collective choices: an experimental study on maggot aggregation behaviours
Summary: In blow fly larvae, collective choice accuracy increases with increasing larval density while interspecific interactions lead to a choice reversal towards sub-optimal food.
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.