Biology Letters最新文献_第5页

When dinosaurs hear like barn owls: pitfalls and caveats in assessing hearing in dinosaurs. 当恐龙听起来像仓鸮：评估恐龙听力的陷阱和警告。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-05-07 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0680

Geoffrey A Manley, Christine Köppl

{"title":"When dinosaurs hear like barn owls: pitfalls and caveats in assessing hearing in dinosaurs.","authors":"Geoffrey A Manley, Christine Köppl","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2024.0680","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0680","url":null,"abstract":"Computer tomographic scanning is now a standard technique for studying the internal features of fossil structures. This enables comparisons with related modern species and speculation concerning function and even behaviour. We express here a concern that inferences about dinosaur hearing and further implications about, e.g. communication or hunting skills, are sometimes stretched beyond what can reasonably be gleaned from fossil data. We summarize current knowledge about structure-function relationships in the avian auditory inner ear and provide guidance for evidence-based inference of hearing capabilities from bony features. In particular, we point out limitations and caveats regarding inferences that are based on one isolated feature alone, typically cochlear length. As an example illustrating some of these pitfalls, we use a recent analysis (Choiniere et al. 2021 Science 372, 610-613 (doi:10.1126/science.abe7941)) that concluded that Shuvuuia deserti, a theropod dinosaur, showed pronounced sensory specializations, including 'specialized hearing acuity, rivalling that of today's barn owl'. We re-analysed the skeletal features of Shuvuuia's inner ear and argue that the analogy between hearing in Shuvuuia and the extant barn owl was based on an ill-chosen metric in assessing the relative length of the cochlear duct and a questionable assumption concerning inner-ear structure.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 5","pages":"20240680"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12055281/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143965129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Nanopores in the ventral scales of Bitis rubida and Bitis armata cause white venters. 红颊双翅虫和阿玛双翅虫腹部鳞片上的纳米孔导致白色的气孔。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-05-14 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0141

K M Samaun Reza, Luisa Maren Borgmann, Dmitry Busko, Junchi Chen, Hans Gunstheimer, Richard Thelen, Guillaume Gomard, Uli Lemmer, Hendrik Hölscher

{"title":"Nanopores in the ventral scales of Bitis rubida and Bitis armata cause white venters.","authors":"K M Samaun Reza, Luisa Maren Borgmann, Dmitry Busko, Junchi Chen, Hans Gunstheimer, Richard Thelen, Guillaume Gomard, Uli Lemmer, Hendrik Hölscher","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0141","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0141","url":null,"abstract":"Recent studies have speculated that some snakes developed white venters to avoid overheating caused by highly radiative soil and rocks. Here, we present the scale-embedded porous nanostructures through which some snake species of the genus Bitis achieve such whiteness. Our analysis reveals nanopores causing scattering underneath the external surface of the white ventral scales of Bitis rubida and Bitis armata. Such nanopores are not present in the scales of Bitis parviocula, Bitis arietans and Bitis rhinoceros that appear transparent or translucent to the naked eye. White ventral scales with nanopores reflect up to 40% of light in the visible regime. The reflection, however, decreases for longer wavelengths and drastically reduces in the infrared. In contrast, a much lower, almost constant reflection around 8% between 250 and 2500 nm is observed for the transparent or translucent ventral scales without nanopores. Our study demonstrates that some snake species of the genus Bitis utilize a light-scattering network of nanopores underneath their external surfaces to create white ventral scales.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 5","pages":"20250141"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12076164/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143967350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Spider venom potency exhibits phylogenetic prey specificity but does not trade-off with body size or silk use in prey capture. 蜘蛛毒液的效力在系统发育上表现出猎物的特异性，但与身体大小或猎物捕获时使用的丝无关。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-05-21 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0133

Keith Lyons, M M Dugon, Kevin Healy

{"title":"Spider venom potency exhibits phylogenetic prey specificity but does not trade-off with body size or silk use in prey capture.","authors":"Keith Lyons, M M Dugon, Kevin Healy","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0133","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0133","url":null,"abstract":"Spiders employ a diverse range of predator traits, including potent venoms, complex silk-hunting strategies and mechanical strength coupled with larger body sizes to capture prey. This trait diversity, along with the quantifiable nature of venom potency, makes spiders an excellent group to study evolutionary trade-offs. Yet, comparative approaches have been historically confounded by the use of atypical prey models to measure venom potency. Here, we account for such confounding issues by incorporating the phylogenetic similarity between a spider's diet and the species used to measure its venom potency. Using a phylogenetic comparative analysis of 75 spider species to test how diet, silk use in prey capture and body size drive venom yield and potency (LD50), we show that spider venoms are generally more potent against models more closely related to their natural prey, reflecting prey-specific patterns. Despite predictions, we find no trade-offs among body size, silk use and venom potency. We find that venom yield scales sublinearly with size, reflecting the 0.75 allometric scaling predicted by metabolic theory, suggesting that venom is metabolically expensive in spiders. Our approach demonstrates how contemporary comparative approaches can be applied to historic venom potency measures to test fundamental evolutionary patterns in predator traits.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 5","pages":"20250133"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12092123/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144109712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

River dolphin cochlea has not evolved convergently. 河豚的耳蜗没有趋同进化。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-05-21 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0035

Mariana Viglino, Travis Park

{"title":"River dolphin cochlea has not evolved convergently.","authors":"Mariana Viglino, Travis Park","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0035","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0035","url":null,"abstract":"Convergence is often invoked to explain some common morphological features in the crania and postcrania of river dolphins (Cetacea, Odontoceti). Rivers are a challenging, complex and increasingly threatened habitat, and echolocation is a critical tool for their survival. Cochlear morphology can be indicative of hearing and echolocation abilities in toothed whales. Previous analyses of river dolphin cochleae have not included all extant riverine taxa, potentially obscuring their patterns of evolution. Based on three-dimensional models obtained from micro-CT scans and using a more inclusive definition of river dolphins, we tested for convergent evolution in cochlear morphology, including extant and extinct species in a broader evolutionary framework. Results showed that the cochlea of river dolphins is not significantly disparate from marine forms, and there is more interspecific morphological variability than expected. Statistical analyses also revealed the lack of convergence in the cochlea and that other ecological variables shaped the intricate evolutionary landscape of this structure. We hypothesize that river dolphins solved the challenges imposed by the environment via their sound production apparatus (e.g. skull shape, melon, etc.) rather than the cochlea.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 5","pages":"20250035"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12092098/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144109697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Were bed bugs the first urban pest insect? Genome-wide patterns of bed bug demography mirror global human expansion. 臭虫是第一个城市害虫吗？臭虫种群的全基因组模式反映了全球人类的扩张。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-05-28 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0061

Lindsay S Miles, Brian C Verrelli, Richard Adams, Yannick Z Francioli, Daren C Card, Ondřej Balvin, Todd A Castoe, Warren Booth

{"title":"Were bed bugs the first urban pest insect? Genome-wide patterns of bed bug demography mirror global human expansion.","authors":"Lindsay S Miles, Brian C Verrelli, Richard Adams, Yannick Z Francioli, Daren C Card, Ondřej Balvin, Todd A Castoe, Warren Booth","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0061","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0061","url":null,"abstract":"There are calls for research into the historical evolutionary relationships between humans and their commensals, as it would greatly inform models that predict the spread of pests and diseases under urban population expansion. The earliest civilizations emerged approximately 10 000 years ago and created conditions ideal for the establishment and spread of commensal urban pests. Commensal relations between humans and pests likely emerged with these early civilizations; however, for most species (e.g. German cockroach and black rat), these relationships have formed relatively recently-within the last 5000 years-raising the question of whether others could have emerged earlier. Following comparative whole genome analysis of bed bugs, Cimex lectularius, belonging to two genetically distinct lineages, one associated with bats and the other with humans, coupled with demographic modelling, our findings suggests that while their association with humans dates back potentially hundreds of thousands of years, a dramatic change in the effective population size of the human-associated lineage occurred approximately 13 000 years ago; a pattern not found in the bat-associated lineage. The timing and magnitude of the demographic patterns provide compelling evidence that the human-associated lineage closely tracked the demographic history of modern humans and their movement into the first cities. As such, bed bugs may represent the first true urban pest insect species.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 5","pages":"20250061"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12115845/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144156834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Stone-assisted drumming in Western chimpanzees and its implications for communication and cultural transmission. 西方黑猩猩的石头辅助击鼓及其对交流和文化传播的影响。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-05-07 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0053

Sem van Loon, Ignas M A Heitkönig, Annemarie Goedmakers, Roger Mundry, Marc Naguib

{"title":"Stone-assisted drumming in Western chimpanzees and its implications for communication and cultural transmission.","authors":"Sem van Loon, Ignas M A Heitkönig, Annemarie Goedmakers, Roger Mundry, Marc Naguib","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0053","url":null,"abstract":"Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) communicate in complex ways, including sounds produced by hand and foot drumming on trees, often combined with loud vocalizations. Recently, a puzzling stone throwing behaviour at trees was observed, resulting in stone piles at tree buttresses. It is a rare case of tool used for communication in animals and suggested to function like buttress drumming in long-distance communication and male displays. We tested this hypothesis by determining the behavioural dynamics in comparison to hand and foot tree buttress drumming in Western chimpanzees in Boé, Guinea Bissau. Using camera traps, we show that in 78% of cases, stones were picked up at trees, not leading to further stone accumulation beyond the already existing stone piles. Stone-assisted and hand and foot drumming occurred separately or were combined in similar behavioural contexts in apparent long-distance communication and highly aroused behavioural contexts. Yet, immediately before stone drumming, chimpanzees swayed less and pant-hooted more while afterwards pant-hooting less compared to the other contexts, suggesting a separate motivation and/or function for stone-assisted drumming. It suggests this unique stone-based activity has its own signal value, separate from hand/foot buttress drumming and, considering the spatial variation, might be culturally transmitted.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 5","pages":"20250053"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12055282/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143959000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Pollinator cognition in a plant network. 植物网络中的传粉者认知。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-05-28 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0044

Patricia L Jones, Eric M Diaz, Neena E Goldthwaite, Hannah T Scotch, Sejal V Prachand, Eva R Ahn

{"title":"Pollinator cognition in a plant network.","authors":"Patricia L Jones, Eric M Diaz, Neena E Goldthwaite, Hannah T Scotch, Sejal V Prachand, Eva R Ahn","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0044","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0044","url":null,"abstract":"Cognitive abilities evolve within the context of ecological communities. Honeybees and bumblebees have become model systems for cognitive ecology, but pollination is performed by a diverse group of insects under similar pressures to forage efficiently in a mixed floral community. We studied the colour learning abilities of six species of Hymenoptera (two eusocial bumblebees, a cuckoo bumblebee, two wasps and a leaf-cutter bee) within the context of an island plant community. We used records of insect visits to flowers in the field to determine the index of specialization of each species in the island plant-pollinator network, and measured the spectral reflectance of the flowers they visit. Species with higher specialization indices in our plant-pollinator network made a larger proportion of correct choices in a colour learning task than more generalist species. The more generalist species also visited a group of flowers more similar to each other in hymenopteran colour vision space. These results indicate that better colour learning abilities may enable insects to forage on plants of different colours, whereas more generalist insects are visiting flowers that are similar in colour, and therefore are less reliant on repeated colour learning to forage efficiently.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 5","pages":"20250044"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12115817/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144156833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Mate copying in Drosophila simulans. 拟果蝇的配偶复制。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-05-28 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0070

Sabine Nöbel, Tim Eric Kaufmann

{"title":"Mate copying in Drosophila simulans.","authors":"Sabine Nöbel, Tim Eric Kaufmann","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0070","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsbl.2025.0070","url":null,"abstract":"To find a suitable mate, many animals across taxa use social information. Mate copying is a form of social learning in which individuals use information regarding potential mates by observing and copying the mate choices of other individuals. While mate copying in Drosophila melanogaster has been extensively documented in the laboratory and its potential for cultural evolution has been demonstrated, little is known about mate copying in other Drosophila species. Here, we report the first evidence that Drosophila simulans females also copy the mate choice of their conspecifics. We used the well-established protocol developed for D. melanogaster: a naive, unmated female first observes a conspecific's mate choice between one artificially coloured green and one artificially coloured pink male and is afterwards allowed to choose between two males of the same phenotypes herself. Just as with D. melanogaster, D. simulans females were more likely to choose the same type of male as in the demonstration. This finding underscores the capacity of D. simulans females to engage in rapid social observational learning, a process that may play a significant role in the evolution of reproductive isolation.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 5","pages":"20250070"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12115842/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144156730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Undescribed and imperiled vertebrate biodiversity near an American urban center. 美国城市中心附近未被描述和濒危的脊椎动物生物多样性。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-04-01 Epub Date: 2025-04-23 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0652

Chase D Brownstein, Daemin Kim, Julia E Wood, Zachariah D Alley, Maya F Stokes, Thomas J Near

引用次数: 0

Phylogenetic history of the acquisition of molluscan hosts in acotylean flatworms. 无肢扁形虫获得软体动物寄主的系统发育历史。

IF 2.8 2区生物学

Biology Letters Pub Date : 2025-04-01 Epub Date: 2025-04-09 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0721

Osamu Kagawa, Hajime Itoh, Nobuyoshi Nakajima, Hiroaki Fukumori

{"title":"Phylogenetic history of the acquisition of molluscan hosts in acotylean flatworms.","authors":"Osamu Kagawa, Hajime Itoh, Nobuyoshi Nakajima, Hiroaki Fukumori","doi":"10.1098/rsbl.2024.0721","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsbl.2024.0721","url":null,"abstract":"How symbionts acquired hosts and diversified phylogenetically during their evolutionary history is a focus of attention in many symbiotic taxa. Marine polyclad flatworms are usually free-living, but some are symbiotic, using animals as hosts. However, the history of their acquisition of symbiotic systems is not well understood. Therefore, we focused on mollusc symbiotic flatworms in the suborder Acotylea and investigated the host specificity and phylogenetic history of the acquisition of symbiosis. Field surveys revealed that symbiotic flatworms utilized certain molluscs as hosts. In particular, Stylochoplana pusilla and Stylochoplana parasitica utilized different molluscan species as hosts sympatrically. The phylogenetic analysis and the ancestral state reconstruction indicate that the mollusc symbiotic flatworms formed a monophyletic group and that their common ancestor shifted from free-living to mollusc symbiosis. These results suggest that each of the flatworms did not independently acquire a symbiotic system with molluscan hosts during its phylogenetic history, but that their common ancestor acquired a mollusc symbiotic system, which then underwent acquisition of host specificity and speciation. This study emphasizes that multiple host use can be a driving force for niche advancement and speciation in the symbionts.","PeriodicalId":9005,"journal":{"name":"Biology Letters","volume":"21 4","pages":"20240721"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11978461/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143810424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0