People and animals can move freely, but they must also be able to stay still. How do skeletal muscles economically produce both movement and posture? Humans are well known to have motor units with relatively homogeneous ...

Signalling systems activated under stress are highly conserved, suggesting adaptive effects of their function. Pathologies arising from continued activation of such systems may represent a mismatch between evolutionary ...

Brood parasites exploit their host in order to increase their own fitness. Typically, this results in an arms race between parasite trickery and host defence. Thus, it is puzzling to observe hosts that accept parasitism ...

Subtle variations in early rearing environment influence morphological, cognitive and behavioural processes that together impact on adult fitness. We manipulated habitat complexity experienced by young pheasants (Phasianus ...

Hibernation is an adaptive strategy for surviving during periods with little or no food availability, by profoundly reducing the metabolic rate and the core body temperature (Tb). Obligate hibernators (e.g. bears, ground ...

Complex problems often require coordinated group effort and can consume significant resources, yet our understanding of how teams form and succeed has been limited by a lack of large-scale, quantitative data. We analyse ...

Caste polyphenism in social insects is regulated by social interactions among colony members. Trophallaxis is one of the most frequently observed interactions, but no studies have been conducted identifying the intrinsic ...

Paternal care can be maintained under sexual selection, if it helps in attracting more mates. We tested the hypothesis in two giant water bug species,Appasus majorandAppasus japonicus, that male parental care is sexually ...

Parents face trade-offs between investing in child health and other fitness enhancing activities. In humans, parental investment theory has mostly been examined through the analysis of differential child outcomes, with ...

Both social and ecological factors influence population process and structure, with resultant consequences for phenotypic selection on individuals. Understanding the scale and relative contribution of these two factors is ...