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Magnetoreception

Homing in on vertebrates

Nature volume 390, pages 339–340 (1997)Cite this article

Imagine being set adrift in a canoe in the middle of an ocean. Which way would you paddle? Most humans would be as lost as lost can be, but creatures such as pigeons, turtles and whales have no difficulty navigating in such circumstances. How they do so remains one of the biggest mysteries in the behavioural sciences, at the centre of which is the question of how organisms might sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it for navigation and homing (a topic with a chequered history — see box, overleaf). The mystery, however, is gradually being solved, and the latest instalment in the story comes in Walker and colleagues' study of rainbow trout (page 371of this issue1).

All known sensory systems have specialized receptor cells designed to respond to the external stimulus, and these are always coupled to neurons to bring this information to the brain. In modern times the main objection to claims that magnetoreception is genuine was biophysical2 — that there was no evidence of appropriate receptors.

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Figure 1: Magnetite-bearing teeth of the mollusc Cryptochiton stelleri .
Figure 2: A freshwater magnetotactic bacterium.
Figure 3: A linear chain of biogenic magnetite crystals, extracted from tissues in the frontal region of the sockeye salmon8, Oncorhynchus nerka, a close relative of the rainbow trout, O. mykiss .

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  1. the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Joseph L. Kirschvink

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  1. Joseph L. Kirschvink
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Kirschvink, J. Homing in on vertebrates. Nature 390, 339–340 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/36986

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