Journal of Experimental Biology

This study investigated the ankle-to-knee and knee-to-ankle joint energy transfer via the biarticular gastrocnemii muscles during unpredictable and adapted drop-like gait perturbations to understand how biarticular mechanisms of the gastrocnemii contribute to the mechanical work performed by the Achilles tendon (AT) force at the ankle joint. This has been done by measuring AT elongation and quant…

Echolocating bats emit acoustic pulses that get reflected off objects. The spatial information carried by the echoes enable bats to avoid obstacles in darkness. Usually, every pulse is followed by a cascade of echoes arising from multiple objects. By using echolocation sequences where a single pulse is followed by an echo cascade, we recently demonstrated that cortical neurons predominantly respo…

Physiological adaptations for amphibious living underpin successful sea-to-land transitions and shape thermal tolerance. Intertidal brachyurans crabs independently evolved contrasting respiratory strategies: air-breathing lungs in fiddler crabs (Gelasiminae) and water dependent gill respiration in sentinel crabs (Macrophthalmidae). How these strategies influence thermal performance, vulnerability…

Understanding how gas regulation impacts behavioural and physiological processes in phocid seals is essential to understanding their foraging ecology. The accumulation of circulating CO₂ across a series of dives is thought to prolong surface recovery, thereby reducing foraging efficiency. This can be empirically tested by experimentally altering circulating gas tensions in diving seals and quanti…

1. Torpor is a state of reduced metabolism that allows animals to conserve energy during periods of limited resources. Critical physiological processes, including the immune function are downregulated during torpor - a phenomenon that remains relatively understudied in bats, especially in the southern hemisphere. 2. This study examines the effects of torpor on the immune system of the eastern ben…

Stabilizing the upright posture of the trunk relies on vestibular and proprioceptive afference. Previous studies found that the feedback responses to sensory afference vary between postures and tasks. We investigated whether and how vestibular and proprioceptive afference contribute to trunk stabilization during different postural tasks, and during walking at different speeds. Twelve healthy adul…

Empirical investigations on communication systems in non-human animals have provided significant insight into the evolutionary origins of language. To further explore how vocal culture may influence such processes, we artificially reduced the vocal diversity found in a colony of zebra finches (Taeniopygia castanotis) by creating three different colonies with founder males trained to produce the s…

Cuttlefish extend soft tentacles to capture evasive prey. High speed imaging of tentacle prey capture in two cuttlefish species reveals kinematically discrete, biphasic tentacle extension. A prolonged reach phase, often extending distances greater than their mantle length, is followed by a close-range, rapid attack phase. Reach phase duration is orders of magnitude longer and more variable than a…

Ageing refers to a decline in individual performance with increasing age that ultimately leads to a reduction in organismal fitness. Although the physiological causes of ageing are likely diverse, a decrease in mitochondrial function may play a central role, as mitochondria generate over 90% of the energy used by eukaryotic cells. Despite support from human and laboratory studies, the effect of a…

The role of microbial symbionts in host stress tolerance remains underexplored. Gut microbiome studies in Drosophila melanogaster have largely focused on bacteria, whereas yeasts have been assumed to provide nutrition rather than engage in true symbiosis. We explored the effect of gut yeasts on chill coma recovery time (CCRT, a proxy for cold tolerance) and its yeast species-specificity and depen…

Pit-building antlion larvae (Myrmeleon spp.) throw sand at prey that approach their pit using their head and mandibles as a backward-directed "biological catapult". This mechanism restricts effective sand-tossing to a defined angular range behind the larva. When prey-like vibrations come from outside this range, antlions are known to reorient, but the consistency and rules behind this behaviour r…

Humans rely on predictive control to maintain stability while walking in dynamic environments, yet the strategies driving this control remain unclear when environments are inconsistent or uncertain. To investigate this, healthy adults performed repeated, goal-directed stepping trials while a robotic device applied lateral force field disruptions to the pelvis in alternating directions (left or ri…

Humans regularly walk across uneven terrain, which demands reactive control strategies to maintain forward progress and stability. While reactive control during walking has been well described during straight gait, it is unclear how reactive control differs during turning gait. Because turning is asymmetrical, perturbations to the inside and outside limbs may elicit different reactive adjustments…

The correlation between body mass and hematological parameters has been investigated in mammals many times in the past, and to a much lesser degree in other vertebrates. Since the pivotal role of red blood cells (RBC) in delivering oxygen to tissues, also a correlation between hematological parameters and metabolic rates could be expected. In the present study, I investigated these correlations u…

Gravity, a constant force throughout evolution, has fundamentally shaped biology, playing a critical role in locomotion, balance, and orientation across species -from unicellular organisms to complex multicellular life. Despite its pivotal role in biomechanics and physiology, how gravity affects different aspects of locomotion remains less understood. Hypergravity induces changes in activity rhyt…

The well-developed vision of vertebrates possessing camera-type eyes is rapidly established during the early phases of life. Cephalopods, a group of mollusks, possess well-developed camera-type eyes similar to those of vertebrates. Although the anatomy of the cephalopod visual system has been studied as an example of convergent evolution between vertebrates and invertebrates, knowledge of vision …

The cold and hypoxic conditions at high altitude can challenge the ability of small endotherms to meet the high energy demands of locomotion and thermoregulation. We examined how high-altitude natives overcome this challenge through plastic and/or evolved improvements in locomotory performance. Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) native to high- and low-altitude were each born and raised in captiv…

Species recognition and courtship behaviors are powerful drivers of speciation. Here, we investigate the neural and behavioral signatures of species recognition in Upland chorus frogs (Pseudacris feriarum). Populations of this species that are sympatric with congener/s (e.g., P. nigrita) have evolved divergent male mating calls and enhanced acoustic discrimination by females due to costly intersp…

How worker bees protect themselves from their own venomHoneybee venom is a potent toxin.Stings cause pain, trigger a racing heart, and sometimes result in life-threatening allergic reactions.But Dalibor Kodrk from the Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic, explains that we, and other mammals, were not the original target.Honeybees probably evolved their sting to incapacitate i…