Issues

Summary: Adopting a favorite hypothesis can bias scientific interpretation, leading to unfounded conclusions. This Commentary highlights the ‘ruling-hypothesis’ concept in general, and specifically in animal magnetoreception, and suggests mitigation strategies.

Highlighted Article: King penguin dive performance differs considerably across seasons, with the deepest and longest dives occurring during the understudied autumn–winter season, when birds spend months at sea.

Summary: Dynamic body acceleration measured via image processing is significantly related to the oxygen consumption rate of damselfish.

Summary: Analysis of how body size, genome size and climatic factors such as temperature and productivity influence basal metabolic rate in rodents, revealing critical insights into metabolic variation across species.

Summary: Experimental measures of muscle energy consumption are difficult to obtain during in vivo conditions; however, physiologically based mathematical models can predict muscle energy use in vivo based on muscle mechanical state.

Highlighted Article: The oca2 gene of Astyanax mexicanus affects prey capture behavior, in addition to its roles in pigmentation and sleep, contributing to our understanding of the pleiotropic phenotypic consequences of oca2 in cavefish evolution.

Summary: In contrast to previous findings, the head and tail of a shark oscillate with the same frequency when they are swimming in the wild, even when observed for long periods.

Summary: Red flour beetle larvae walk with a legged wave gait and use their tails as anchors to climb inclines and tunnel into flour.

Summary: The shell bone of marine turtles represents important biomechanical trade-offs, i.e. lower stiffness and a high degree of flexibility, to balance its protective ability and hydrodynamic efficiency.

Summary: Pair disruption during emancipation of juvenile zebra finches results in modification of the social family structure but has little effect on juvenile behavioural and stress response phenotypes.

Summary: Tissue regeneration is energetically costly; mitochondrial function, modulated by diet, impacts gill regeneration capacity in Atlantic salmon and plays a critical role in different phases of regeneration.

Summary: A 3 year dataset investigating northern quoll performance reveals that extreme reproductive strategies drive sex-specific changes in sprint speed and bite force, with no trade-off, suggesting these traits evolve independently in both sexes.

Highlighted Article: Percussive behaviours of wild fiddler crabs (Afruca tangeri) recorded with geophones produce broadband signals that can be categorised by their rhythm and intensity.

Summary: Comparison of transcriptomic reaction norms across oyster species shows metabolic depression allows some intertidal, but not subtidal, species to survive when their physiological tipping point to ocean acidification is exceeded.

Editors' choice: Squirrels achieve stable, nonprehensile branch landings by controlling leg forces and foot torques, offering insights for agile robotic design.

Summary: Analysis of sea lamprey gills reveals a novel Cftr-independent, Ano1-rich ionocyte for salt secretion, suggesting greater diversity in marine vertebrate gill ionoregulatory mechanisms than previously known.

Highlighted Article: The axial nerve cord of the octopus arm responds physiologically to local light stimulation and particularly strongly to blue light; responses are mediated through the arm skin, highlighting its role in light detection.

Highlighted Article: Tiny warty birch caterpillars defend leaf tip territories by producing complex vibratory signals. Signals function as vibratory fences to exclude intruders, and leaf tips may offer escape routes from enemies.