Magnetoreception in animals
Animal Navigation is an area of science which has witnessed a vast amount of progress in the latter part of the twentieth century. A key part of its focus has been upon avian navigation, which has seen a series of recent developments published in Nature. In particular is the development of a model of navigation based upon magnetoreception.
- We know that many animals use the GMF to navigate.
- Newts, turtles and birds are all known to be magneto-receptive.
- Wiltschko (2005) -The available evidence suggests that birds use a magnetite mechanism and RPM to navigate.
- Different animals utilise different parts of the GMF to navigate.
Initially magnetoreception was thought to be solely based upon the interaction of the geomagnetic field and magnetite which is present within certain animals; in birds it is located in the beak. This was found to respond to local changes in the geomagnetic field as a result of varying crust and rock structure. This however, only provided the