1.While most frogs maximize jump distance as an escape behavior, toads have traded jump distance for endurance with a strategy of hopping repeatedly. This strategy has enabled toads to expand across the continents as one of the most diverse groups of anurans. Multiple studies have revealed physiological endurance adaptations for sustained hopping in toads, however, the kinematics of their sequential hopping behavior, per se, has not been studied. 2.We compared kinematics and forces of single...

Hybridization and introgression appear more common in rapidly evolving groups, suggesting an important role in the evolutionary process. Detailed studies of how extrinsic or intrinsic forces regulate hybridization and introgression have the potential for broadening our understanding of mechanisms generating diversity. Species in the Fundulus notatus species complex have broad overlapping ranges and occur in replicated hybrid zones along predictable stream gradients. Typical hybrid zone structure has F. olivaceus in headwaters, F. notatus downstream, and...

The establishment of symbioses between eukaryotic hosts and bacterial symbionts in nature is a dynamic process. The formation of such relationships depends on the life history of both partners. Bacterial symbionts of amoebae may have unique evolutionary trajectories to the symbiont lifestyle, because bacteria are typically ingested as prey. To persist after being eaten, bacteria must survive phagocytosis. In the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, certain strains of Burkholderia bacteria are able to resist amoebal digestion...

Image-guided surgery can enhance cancer treatment by decreasing, and ideally eliminating, positive tumor margins and iatrogenic damage to healthy tissue. Current state-of-the-art near-infrared fluorescence imaging systems are bulky and costly, lack sensitivity under surgical illumination, and lack co-registration accuracy between multimodal images. As a result, an overwhelming majority of physicians still rely on their unaided eyes and palpation as the primary sensing modalities for distinguishing cancerous from healthy tissue. Here we introduce an innovative design,...

Aim: We used genome-scale sampling to assess the phylogeography of a group of topminnows in the Fundulus notatus species complex. Two of the species have undergone extensive range expansions resulting in broadly overlapping distributions, and sympatry within drainages has provided opportunities for hybridization and introgression. We assess the timing and pattern of range expansion in the context of late-Pleistocene-Holocene drainage events, and evaluate the evidence for introgressive hybridization between species. Location: Central and southern United...

Population cycles are fundamentally linked with spatial synchrony, the prevailing paradigm being that populations with cyclic dynamics are easily synchronized. That is, population cycles help give rise to spatial synchrony. Here we demonstrate this process can work in reverse, with synchrony causing population cycles. We show that timescale-specific environmental effects, by synchronizing local population dynamics on certain timescales only, cause major population cycles over large areas in white-tailed deer. An important aspect of the new...

Temperature is highly influential on the physiology and behaviour of ectotherms. In fish, temperature affects social interactions such as schooling behaviour, a common defence against predation. However, the effect of temperature on the ability of schooling fish to collectively respond to a predator is unknown. Here we used a loom stimulus to simulate an approaching predator that elicited a fleeing response in schooling fish over a range of water temperatures (9-29°C) and group sizes (1-16...