Stress in early life can enhance bird song complexity

Loren Merrill, Madeleine F. Naylor, Merria Dalimonte, Sean McLaughlin, Tara E. Stewart, and Jennifer L. Grindstaff Stress in early life can have long-lasting consequences. For instance, when young animals are exposed to stressors like malnourishment or disease, their appearance is often permanently impacted, along with their behaviours and cognitive abilities. Zebra finches are charismatic birds…

Metabolic rate depends on body mass, growth form and invasion status in sessile marine invertebrates

Marcelo E. Lagos, Craig R. White & Dustin J. Marshall Invasive organisms often share characteristics that make them successful. Traits such as rapid growth and short generation times are classic ‘weedy’ adaptations that can make them successful outside their natural habitats. Given that invasive species often display ‘fast’ life histories, they may have relatively higher…

Diet drives beak diversification in waterfowl

Aaron M Olsen Bird beaks are often cited as a classic example of evolution by natural selection. Over generations, it is thought that beak shapes that are better suited to eating particular foods will outcompete less favourable beak shapes and be passed on to offspring, through a process known as adaptation. Over time this would…

Transgenerational compensation in lizards: the offspring of food-restricted mothers survive better

Wei-Guo Du, Yang Wang, Shu-Ran Li, Zhi-Gao Zeng and Liang Liang It has long been known that the environment experienced by a mother can affect offspring traits without modification of the DNA sequence. This phenomenon of maternal effect would be adaptive when mothers can adjust the phenotype of their offspring to match the changes in…

Optimal running speeds when there is a trade-off between speed and the probability of mistakes

Ami Fadhillah Amir Abdul Nasir, Christofer J. Clemente, Melissa L Wynn and Robbie S Wilson In studies of animal performance, it’s commonly assumed that a prey animal should run as fast as it can when trying to escape a predator. Yet running too fast can compromise motor control and step accuracy. A recent mathematical model…

Zooplankton mothers make bigger offspring, but it’s not enough to protect them against harmful blue-green algal blooms

Jessica E. Beyer and K. David Hambright One of the goals of all organisms is to ensure that as many offspring as possible will survive to adulthood. To accomplish this, organisms use many different strategies, including changing features of the offspring, such as their size. However, to supply offspring with the right set of tools…

How specialized is a diet specialist? Not as specialized as you might think.

Rebecca C. Terry, Megan E. Guerre, David S. Taylor How species respond to environmental change is shaped in part by what they eat.  Dietary specialists consume a narrow range of resources, often exhibiting morphological and behavioral adaptations to their diet resulting in reduced niche flexibility.  Thus ongoing environmental change can place dietary specialists at particularly…

How sea snakes partition energy within coastal environments

Vinay Udyawer, Colin A. Simpfendorfer, Michelle R. Heupel, Timothy D. Clark   Resources within a given environment (e.g. shelter, prey) are often not the same between different habitats. Therefore how animals move and select habitats within their environment tend to incorporate strategies to maximise the benefits they gain from different habitats while minimising the amount…

Benefits of thermal tolerance plasticity

Alex R. Gunderson, Michael E. Dillon and Jonathon H. Stillman It has long been known that animals can physiologically adjust to changing temperatures (without evolutionary change), a process known as “thermal acclimation.” It is generally assumed that thermal acclimation is beneficial, but it has proven difficult to empirically demonstrate the benefits, if they exist, under…

VIDEO ABSTRACT: To know a scorpion by its tail: the tail strike of scorpions differs between species

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To know a scorpion by its tail: the tail strike of scorpions differs between species in shape and speed

Pedro Coelho, Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou, Mykola Rasko and Arie van der Meijden There are almost 2,500 species of scorpions in the world, and many differ in the shape and size of their venomous tail*. The reasons for this large variation in tail shape are often not known. While scorpions sting their insect prey slowly and precisely,…

Competition during thermoregulation – The costs of being (or not being) under the spotlight

Travis W. Rusch and Michael J. Angilletta Jr. Animals spend much of their time keeping themselves at the right temperature (i.e. thermoregulating) to maximize performances such as digestion, growth, and locomotion. For most species, the primary means of thermoregulation is shuttling between sun and shade. However, because temperature varies throughout space and time, organisms regularly…