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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The tips of propulsive structures operating in fluids, both air and water, bend similarly among diverse animal sizes and taxa as exemplified by whale flukes and bird wings. Costello et al. (jeb245346) describe two recent areas of research progress that explain these patterns. First, comparative animal kinematics have defined a constrained range for both bending extent and location of propulsive structures. Second, new technical approaches have uncovered the fluid dynamic advantages of these constrained bending patterns. Together, these methods clarify the gains in propulsive efficiency that have guided widespread convergence on similar bending patterns among animals moving in fluids. Photo credit: Mike Baird.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
CONVERSATION
COMMENTARIES
A fundamental propulsive mechanism employed by swimmers and flyers throughout the animal kingdom
Summary: Wings and fins bend remarkably similarly among animals that fly and swim. Here, we review these patterns, describe their mechanistic benefits and propose a path forward for their study.
The mechanistic basis and adaptive significance of cross-tolerance: a ‘pre-adaptation’ to a changing world?
Summary: Although stress exposure is typically detrimental, here, we highlight protective interactions where exposure to mild stress can increase an organism's resilience to a different stressor – a phenomenon termed ‘cross-protection’.
Optimisation and constraint: explaining metabolic patterns in biology
Summary: We recently developed a new theory to explain the evolutionary origin of metabolic scaling. Here, we present an overview of our approach and a critique of its limitations.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
In a marine teleost, the significance of oxygen supply for acute thermal tolerance depends upon the context and the endpoint used
Summary: In the European seabass, cardiorespiratory capacity to supply oxygen for metabolism is significant for tolerance of thermal ramping if the endpoint is fatigue from aerobic exercise, but not if the endpoint is loss of equilibrium under resting conditions.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Divergence in cell cycle progression is associated with shifted phenology in a multivoltine moth: the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis
Summary: Regulation of cell cycle progression rates drives differences in larval diapause termination, and adult emergence timing, between early- and late-emerging European corn borer strains.
Warmer and more acidic conditions enhance performance of an endemic low-shore gastropod
Summary: The temperature for optimal righting performance of an African whelk (Trochia cingulata) shifts with acclimation temperature but, contrary to previous studies, its upper thermal tolerance increases with temperature and acidification.
Temporal regulation of temperature tolerances and gene expression in an arctic insect
An arctic arthropod adjusts its thermal tolerances to microenvironmental fluctuations within a time scale of minutes–hours. The gene expression modulating physiology occurs at much different temperatures in the field than laboratory.
Impacts of ocean acidification and warming on post-larval growth and metabolism in two populations of the great scallop (Pecten maximus)
Summary: Juvenile scallops from France and Norway differ in their response to warming and acidification: French scallops show more physiological plasticity, adjusting their proteome and metabolism to maintain growth.
A sensation for inflation: initial swim bladder inflation in larval zebrafish is mediated by the mechanosensory lateral line
Summary: Larval zebrafish use their lateral line to sense the air–water interface and regulate initial swim bladder inflation to achieve neutral buoyancy.
Artificial light impairs local attraction to females in male glow-worms
Under brighter illumination, fewer glow-worm males reach a female-mimicking LED in a Y-maze, taking longer to do so, partly because they retract their head beneath their head-shield for longer.
Phylogeny and evolution of erythrocytes in mammals
Summary: The evolution of mammalian red blood cell features, above all size and haemoglobin–oxygen affinity, has interesting relevance to concepts such as biological constraint, preadaptation and adaptive selection.
A diminutive snake species can maintain regional heterothermy in both homogeneous and heterogeneous thermal environments
Summary: Diminutive snakes can maintain regional heterothermy despite elongate shapes in both homogeneous and heterogeneous thermal environments.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
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.
