Zoological Letters

Zoological Letters is now accepting submissions to the cross-journal series: Life at the extreme. Highlighting research on the physiology and development of extremophile species. Find out more here.

Morphology of the ctenostome bryozoan Hypophorella expansa

Axonal pathways of camel spiders

Regeneration of the digestive tract of a sea cucumber

A new crustacean species from the Cretaceous period

Research Article
A 100-million-year old predator: a fossil neuropteran larva with unusually elongated mouthparts
Joachim T. Haug, Patrick Müller and Carolin Haug
Published on: 30 August 2019

Research Article
Life in a tube: morphology of the ctenostome bryozoan Hypophorella expansa
Philipp Pröts, Andreas Wanninger and Thomas Schwaha
Published on: 8 August 2019

Research Article
Evolution of cis-regulatory modules for the head organizer gene goosecoid in chordates: comparisons between Branchiostoma and Xenopus
Yuuri Yasuoka, Yukiko Tando, Kaoru Kubokawa and Masanori Taira
Published on: 2 August 2019

Research Article
Primary processing neuropils associated with the malleoli of camel spiders (Arachnida, Solifugae): a re-evaluation of axonal pathways
Andy Sombke, Anja E. Klann, Elisabeth Lipke and Harald Wolf
Published on: 2 August 2019

Research Article
Comparative genomic analysis suggests that the sperm-specific sodium/proton exchanger and soluble adenylyl cyclase are key regulators of CatSper among the Metazoa
Francisco Romero and Takuya Nishigaki
Published on: 26 July 2019

Research Article
Same but different: aquatic prey capture in paedomorphic and metamorphic Alpine newts
Egon Heiss and Julia Grell
Published on: 26 July 2019

Review
Multiple functions of non-hypophysiotropic gonadotropin releasing hormone neurons in vertebrates
Chie Umatani and Yoshitaka Oka
Published on: 22 July 2019

Research article
Regeneration of the digestive tract of an anterior-eviscerating sea cucumber, Eupentacta quinquesemita, and the involvement of mesenchymal–epithelial transition in digestive tube formation
Akari Okada and Mariko Kondo
Published on: 21 June 2019

Research article
A new calmanostracan crustacean species from the Cretaceous Yixian Formation and a simple approach for differentiating fossil tadpole shrimps and their relatives
Philipp Wagner, Joachim T. Haug and Carolin Haug
Published on: 18 June 2019

Research article
FGF- and SHH-based molecular signals regulate barbel and craniofacial development in catfish
Tatsuya Itoyama, Makiko Fukui, Masahumi Kawaguchi, Saki Kaneko, Fumiaki Sugahara and Yasunori Murakami
Published on: 14 June 2019

Research article
First report of paired ventral endites in a hurdiid radiodont
Stephen Pates, Allison C. Daley and Nicholas J. Butterfield
Published on: 11 June 2019

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Content type: Review
| 13 January 2015

Evolution of the vertebrate skeleton: morphology, embryology, and development

Authors: Tatsuya Hirasawa and Shigeru Kuratani
Content type: Research article
| 1 February 2015

Planarian shows decision-making behavior in response to multiple stimuli by integrative brain function

Authors: Takeshi Inoue, Hajime Hoshino, Taiga Yamashita, Seira Shimoyama and Kiyokazu Agata
Content type: Review
| 13 January 2015

Did homeobox gene duplications contribute to the Cambrian explosion?

Authors: Peter W H Holland
Content type: Research article
| 13 February 2015

Aquatic adaptation and the evolution of smell and taste in whales

Authors: Takushi Kishida, JGM Thewissen, Takashi Hayakawa, Hiroo Imai and Kiyokazu Agata
Content type: Review
| 24 July 2015

What is Xenoturbella?

Authors: Hiroaki Nakano

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Founded in 1878, the Zoological Society of Japan is known to be one of the oldest and successful academic societies in Japan, and has supported scientific activities across a wide-range fields of areas associated with basic zoology. The Zoological Society of Japan is an academic society aimed at the advance and dissemination of animal scientific research. Members, starting with researchers and graduate students affiliated with universities and research institutes, consist of teaching staff at elementary, middle and high schools, and the number of members has reached 2,700.

Aims and scope

Zoological Letters is an open access journal that publishes new and important findings in the zoological sciences. As a sister journal to Zoological Science, Zoological Letters covers a wide range of basic fields of zoology, from taxonomy to bioinformatics. We also welcome submissions of paleontology reports as part of our effort to contribute to the development of new perspectives in evolutionary zoology. Our goal is to serve as a global publishing forum for fundamental researchers in all fields of zoology.

Shigeru Kuratani, Editor-in-Chief

Shigeru Kuratani received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Zoology at Kyoto University. He spent the period from 1988 to 1991 working in experimental embryology in the Department of Anatomy at the Medical College of Georgia before moving to the Biochemistry Department, Baylor College of Medicine, where he focused on molecular embryological research. He returned to Japan in 1994 to take a position as associate professor at the Institute of Medical Embryology and Genetics in the Kumamoto University School of Medicine. He moved to Okayama University to assume a professorship in the Department of Biology in 1997, where he remained until he was appointed team leader at the CDB in 2001. He was appointed Group Director at CDB from 2005 to 2014. Since 2014, he is Chief Scientist at RIKEN.