Skip main navigationJournal menuClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Skip main navigationJournal menuClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu

Biology Letters

A fast, high-quality journal, publishing short research articles, reviews and opinion pieces across the biological sciences. This is a Plan S compliant Transformative Journal.
 <p><b>Cover image</b><br />A wandering albatross displaying to potential mates. Photo credit: Samantha Patrick. See the article “Boldness predicts divorce rates in wandering albatrosses (<i>Diomedea exulans</i>)” by Sun <i>et al</i>., published in <i>Biol. Lett</i>. (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0301">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0301</a>).</p>

Current issue

Editor-In-Chief

Professor David Beerling FRS
Frequency: Monthly
ISSN (Online):1744-957X

Latest articles

21 September 2022
A possible home for a bizarre Carboniferous animal: is Typhloesus a pelagic gastropod?
14 September 2022
Are Madagascar's obligate grazing-lawns ancient and evolved with endemic herbivores, or recently selected by introduced cattle?
14 September 2022
Boldness predicts divorce rates in wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans)
14 September 2022
Top-down response to spatial variation in productivity and bottom-up response to temporal variation in productivity in a long-term study of desert ants
See all latest articles
Biology Letters 1
Biology Letters 2

Featured articles

Biology Letters

Contrasting selection pressure on body and weapon size in a polygynous megaherbivore

Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is a common morphological trait in ungulates, with polygyny considered the leading driver of larger male body mass and weapon size. However, not all polygynous species exhibit SSD, while molecular evidence has revealed a more ...Read more
Biology Letters

Pterin-based pigmentation in animals

Pterins are one of the major sources of bright coloration in animals. They are produced endogenously, participate in vital physiological processes and serve a variety of signalling functions. Despite their ubiquity in nature, pterin-based pigmentation has ...Read more
Biology Letters

‘Dunbar's number’ deconstructed

A widespread and popular belief posits that humans possess a cognitive capacity that is limited to keeping track of and maintaining stable relationships with approximately 150 people. This influential number, ‘Dunbar's number’, originates from an ...Read more
Biology Letters

Impact of marine heatwaves for sea turtle nest temperatures

There are major concerns about the ecological impact of extreme weather events. In the oceans, marine heatwaves (MHWs) are an increasing threat causing, for example, recent devastation to coral reefs around the world. We show that these impacts extend to ...Read more

Aims and Scope

Biology Letters

Launched in 2005, Biology Letters is an online, peer-reviewed journal that publishes short, high-quality articles, reviews and opinion pieces from across the biological sciences. The scope of Biology Letters is vast — publishing high-quality research in any area of the biological sciences.

Biology Letters 1
The Most Read list displays the most accessed articles within a journal for a rolling 12 month period, where “accessed” refers to the HTML and PDF views.
See all most read
The Most Cited list displays the most cited articles within a journal for a rolling 12 month period, where “cited” refers to citing articles as recorded by Crossref.
See all most cited

Browse by subject

See all subjects