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Cover: Building new paradigms in comparative physiology and biomechanics. Through reviews of the literature and the collation, data mining and analysis of existing and emerging datasets, this special issue aims to generate new questions or illuminate paradigm shifts across a broad array of topics – from biomechanics and muscle physiology to ecophysiology, endocrinology, neurobiology and cardiovascular physiology (jeb244096).
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Special Issue: Building New Paradigms in Comparative Physiology and Biomechanics
EDITORIAL
COMMENTARIES
Epigenomics as a paradigm to understand the nuances of phenotypes
Summary: To link epigenomics with the complex phenotype of physiology, this Commentary outlines an experimental approach for identifying associated epigenetic marks, distinguishing correlated from causal states and identifying plausible evolutionary paths.
A new conceptual framework for the musculoskeletal biomechanics and physiology of ray-finned fishes
Summary: The recent discovery that some fish use their whole bodies for high-performance suction feeding prompts a reappraisal of cranial and axial biomechanics and overall body shape in ray-finned fishes.
Best practices for building and curating databases for comparative analyses
Summary: To maximize the efficiency, endurance and reach of a comparative database, we recommend four practices associated with searching, structuring the database, establishing version control and ensuring accessibility.
Legs as linkages: an alternative paradigm for the role of tendons and isometric muscles in facilitating economical gait
Summary: Muscles, tendons and bones form linkages that avoid much of the mechanical work demand of locomotion at the level of both the whole leg and the individual muscles.
Paths towards greater consensus building in experimental biology
Summary: Greater transparency, cross-disciplinary integration and consensus building will improve the contributions of experimental biologists towards addressing the impacts of environmental change on living organisms.
Connecting materials, performance and evolution: a case study of the glue of moth-catching spiders (Cyrtarachninae)
Summary: To understand viscoelastic biomaterials, one must analyze strain rate-dependent properties within relevant ecological conditions; a case study is presented to understand how a material functions from genome through organism to ecology.
REVIEWS
Phylogenetics of swimming behaviour in Medusozoa: the role of giant axons and their possible evolutionary origin
Summary: DNA-based phylogenetic trees chart the evolutionary origins of giant axons in the Cnidaria, a nerve net/tract condensation that may involve axonal fusion mediated by small fusogen molecules.
Complications with body-size correction in comparative biology: possible solutions and an appeal for new approaches
Summary: Corrections for body-size effects on phenotypic trait variation should account for interactions with the effects of other causal factors.
Integrating theoretical and empirical approaches for a robust understanding of endocrine flexibility
Summary: Individuals modify hormone levels to respond to environmental change, but differ in their responsiveness. We review endocrine flexibility studies and recommend using empirical and modeling techniques in tandem to advance understanding.
Physiological mechanisms of stress-induced evolution
Summary: Eukaryotes can employ five mechanisms when experiencing stress to accelerate the process of adaptation. These mechanisms are outlined with emphasis on examples in animals.
Meta-analytic approaches and effect sizes to account for ‘nuisance heterogeneity’ in comparative physiology
Summary: How to deal with ‘nuisance heterogeneity’ by re-formalising new effect sizes and multilevel meta-regression models.
Linking environmental salinity to respiratory phenotypes and metabolic rate in fishes: a data mining and modelling approach
Summary: Freshwater teleosts have lower gill oxygen conductance and higher haemoglobin–oxygen affinity than seawater species; both groups use different combinations of these traits to maintain similar metabolic rates and hypoxia tolerance.
Conserved and convergent mechanisms underlying performance–life-history trade-offs
Summary: Shared and convergent mechanisms link performance to life history in all animal species.
Blending physiology and RNAseq to provide new insights into regulation of epithelial transport: switching between ion secretion and reabsorption
Summary: Studies combining electrophysiology and RNAseq provide new insights into the roles of voltage-gated, ligand-gated and mechanosensitive ion channels in switching between epithelial ion secretion and reabsorption.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Stress response gene family expansions correlate with invasive potential in teleost fish
Summary: A comparative analysis of sunfish transcriptomes and 95 fish genomes reveals expansions in specific stress response gene families that correlate with invasive potential.
Scaling of fibre area and fibre glycogen concentration in the hindlimb musculature of monitor lizards: implications for locomotor performance with increasing body size
Summary: In varanid lizard hindlimb muscles, muscle fibre cross-sectional area scales with body mass to the power 0.278–0.197, while the proportion of low-glycogen fibres decreases with mass in some muscles.
Predicting selection–response gradients of heat tolerance in a widespread reef-building coral
Summary: Heat stress exerts disruptive selection on adult corals. This likely underpins variability in offspring survival and results in differences in offspring responses to selection.
Molecular evidence of intertidal habitats selecting for repeated ice-binding protein evolution in invertebrates
Summary: Intertidal invertebrates have a disproportionate number of putative ice-binding proteins relative to other habitats. These putative proteins are highly similar to antifreeze glycoproteins and type II antifreeze proteins from fish.
A quantitative genetics perspective on the body-mass scaling of metabolic rate
Summary: Genetically based estimates of the body-mass scaling exponent of metabolic rate in eight animal species average 0.67, but the uncertainty does not exclude other theoretical values (e.g. 0.75).
Stride frequency or length? A phylogenetic approach to understand how animals regulate locomotor speed
Summary: Supported by a repetitive motor program, speed regulation involves changes in stride frequency and length. Small-bodied crouched animals primarily regulate speed through changes in stride frequency, while large-bodied arboreal species modulate stride length.
The mechanics of acoustic signal evolution in field crickets
Summary: Field cricket song frequencies and their evolutionary constraints can be predicted using computational models of their sound-producing wing structures.
The evolution of asymmetrical gaits in gnathostome vertebrates
Summary: Evolutionary analysis shows that asymmetrical gaits were likely present at the base of the gnathostome phylogenetic tree and could be both lost and gained during gnathostome evolution.
Impact of fluctuating developmental temperatures on phenotypic traits in reptiles: a meta-analysis
Summary: Across reptile taxa, fluctuating developmental temperatures generally benefit embryos at cool mean temperatures but have a cost at warm mean temperatures.
2D and 3D visualizations of archosaur jaw muscle mechanics, ontogeny and phylogeny using ternary diagrams and 3D modeling
Summary: Case studies presented in this paper use ternary diagrams, a tool used in multiple scientific disciplines, to visualize spatial relationships of muscles across ontogeny, evolution, and muscle mechanics in archosaurs.
Phylogenetic analysis of adaptation in comparative physiology and biomechanics: overview and a case study of thermal physiology in treefrogs
Summary: Analysis of treefrog thermal physiology with the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck model of adaptation shows that increasing cold tolerance was key to successful colonization of the temperate zone.
Cardiovascular contributions and energetic costs of thermoregulation in ectothermic vertebrates
Summary: A cardiovascular heat exchange framework (CHEF) that integrates biophysical concepts with direct measurements of physiological data in the field to identify physiological mechanisms of heat exchange and energetics of thermoregulation.
Harnessing physiological research for smarter environmental policy

In their Perspective, Alexia Dubuc and colleagues discuss strategies to strengthen collaboration, communication and engagement between physiological researchers and environmental policy makers to ensure that conservation strategies address the threats posed by climate change.
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 28 November 2025.
Early testing could make risky falls a thing of the past for elderly people

Falls cost healthcare systems billions each year, but there may be a solution. Jiaen Wu and colleagues of Stanford University, USA, suggest that measuring the way someone walks before they get old might let doctors know who is at risk for a potentially life-threatening fall in the future.
Ecosystem engineers on tropical reefs in transition

Giant barrel sponges (GSBs) remain robust to rising seawater temperatures and have rapidly populated reefs stripped of coral cover by climate change. GBSs may be poised to become the dominant habitat-forming organisms in tropical reef ecosystems of the future. In this Review, Joseph Pawlik provides an integrative and critical assessment of research on giant barrel sponges.
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.