Issues

Summary: In this Review, we discuss the development of dominance hierarchies, how social rank is signalled through visual and chemical cues and the neurobiological mechanisms controlling or correlating with agonistic behaviour.

Summary: Unlike emydid turtles, the loggerhead sea turtle heart does not have atrial smooth muscle. However, like other turtles, loggerheads exhibit smooth muscle in the sinus venosus, which likely regulates cardiac filling.

Summary: We show how to construct and apply a setup to acoustically tether and enable behavioral observations of individual microorganisms using simple laboratory equipment and a standard light microscope.

Highlighted Article: Investigation of underwater hearing ability in multiple sea duck species using psychoacoustic and electrophysiological techniques, with potential for development of effective pinger devices applicable to conversation strategies to reduce sea duck bycatch.

Highlighted Article: Accelerometry-based activity measurements can serve as a good proxy for sleep–wake patterns in barnacle geese.

Summary:In situ hybridization with c-fos riboprobe indicates differential responses of olfactory sensory neurons to odorants in East African cichlids, providing insight into how olfaction has contributed to the diversification of cichlids.

Summary: Plasticity of the energetic costs of growth and scaling relationships in larval zebrafish revealed a complex and dynamic allostatic response to multiple environmental stressors in early fish stages.

Summary: Development reduces risk assessment and improves hatching performance by red-eyed treefrog embryos in both flooding and simulated attacks. Predation cues elicit faster decisions and hatching, congruent with more immediate risk.

Summary: Transient optical inhibition of leg proprioceptors demonstrates their importance for leg kinematics and motor control during free walking in Drosophila melanogaster.

Summary: Prophylactic administration of the flavonoid kaempferol induces protection against the motor impairment produced by exposure of fruit flies to the insecticide fipronil.

Summary: Comparison of biomechanical properties of temporal osteoderms in 11 lizard species reveals significant differences in stiffness between taxa, reflecting differences in microstructure and macrostructure and, likely, in function.

Editor's choice: Functional characterization of two novel ammonia transporters (Hiat1a/b) in fish: Hiat1 is critical for development and likely involved general ammonia handling.

Summary: Arboreal salamanders frequently demonstrate steep but stable glides, effective parachuting and controlled aerial maneuvers that may be useful when falling through the tree canopy.