The Song of the Elephant: In mammals, vocal sound production generally occurs in one of two ways, either through muscular control—as when a cat purrs or, more commonly, by air passing through the vocal folds—which occurs in humans and facilitates production of extremely high frequency bat calls. Over the past 20 years, it has been recognized that elephants can communicate through extremely low frequency infrasonic sounds. Taking advantage of a natural death of an elephant in a zoo, Herbst et al. (p. 595 ) examined the biomechanics of elephant sound production in an excised elephant larynx. Self-sustained vocal-fold vibrations, without the presence of any neural control, were used to produce infrasonic elephant sounds, using the same mechanism as singing in humans and echolocation in bats.

During the evolutionary transition from fish to tetrapods, a shift from uni- to bidirectional suction feeding systems followed a reduction in the gill apparatus. Such a shift can still be observed during metamorphosis of salamanders, although many adult salamanders retain their aquatic lifestyle and feed by high-performance suction. Unfortunately, little is known about the interplay between jaws and hyobranchial motions to generate bidirectional suction flows. Here, we study the cranial morphology, as well as kinematic and hydrodynamic aspects related to prey capture in the Chinese giant salamander ( Andrias davidianus ). Compared with fish and previously studied amphibians, A. davidianus uses an alternative suction mechanism that mainly relies on accelerating water by separating the ‘plates’ formed by the long and broad upper and lower jaw surfaces. Computational fluid dynamics simulations, based on three-dimensional morphology and kinematical data from high-speed videos, indicate that the viscerocranial elements mainly serve to accommodate the water that was given a sufficient anterior-to-posterior impulse beforehand by powerful jaw separation. We hypothesize that this modified way of generating suction is primitive for salamanders, and that this behaviour could have played an important role in the evolution of terrestrial life in vertebrates by releasing mechanical constraints on the hyobranchial system.

The Spanish ribbed newt Pleurodeles waltl shows a bizzare defensive mechanism against predators. X‐ray analysis before and after a simulated threat shows that this newt rotates its ribs anteriorly. The maximum measured angle to which the ribs moved was 65°. This forward movement causes the sharply pointed rib tips to lacerate the body wall and project freely from the sides of the trunk as spines. Light microscopy shows the microanatomy, and computed tomography shows the 3D morphology of these unusual weapons. They are ‘spear‐shaped’ and hollow proximally, massive distally and are connected to the corresponding vertebra by a well‐developed, two‐headed joint. The skin in the penetration areas lacks permanent pores through which the ribs could be projected and is pierced de novo by every antipredator posturing. This investigation provides new insight into the functionality of a highly complex, integrated and unusual defensive strategy.