Editors’ choice – Colubrid snake eyes converted rods into cones

Closely related snake species often have vastly different retinas, with some made up entirely of cones while others are composed of rods alone: so how have snakes managed these photoreceptor quick changes? The Editors’ choice Research article from Belinda Chang and colleagues shows that instead of losing and re-evolving photoreceptor cell types, there is evidence that some colubrid snakes have converted rod photoreceptors into cones to produce all cone retinas.

Featured article – Even light oiling from spills can be catastrophic for birds

Heavy crude oil spills are devastating for the animal populations lying in their wake, but now new research from Ivan Maggini and colleagues reveals that even a light coating of oil on their feathers can have a dramatic effect on migrating bird species, increasing their energy costs by up to 45%. Read the Research article here, as featured in Science magazine.

Conversation – Lauren O'Connell

“Outreach especially allows women and minorities to understand that they too could be field scientists or bench scientists”

The latest in our new series of interviews with early-career researchers features Lauren O'Connell, a Bauer Fellow at Harvard University, who studies genetic and environmental contributions to behaviour and physiology in poison frogs. She shares her views on the importance of independent fellowships to innovation in research and why outreach is crucial to bringing diversity to science.

Visit our collection of previous Conversation interviews here.

Featured article - Acoustic communication in terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates

In this Review, Friedrich Ladich and Hans Winkler discuss how aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates differ in their mechanisms of acoustic communication; primarily because of their phylogenetic history and less so because of the physical differences between media.