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Animal behaviour

The lobster navigators

Nature volume 421, pages 27–28 (2003)Cite this article

When experimentally displaced in geomagnetic space, spiny lobsters act as if to make their way home. This is a fascinating case of navigation by an invertebrate using a magnetic map sense.

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Figure 1: Position determination and Earth's magnetic field.
Figure 2: Magnetic inclination and total field intensity in the distribution range of the spiny lobster, Panulirus argus.

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  1. Department of Animal Ecology, Ecology Building, Lund University, Lund, SE-22362, Sweden

    Thomas Alerstam

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  1. Thomas Alerstam
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Correspondence to Thomas Alerstam.

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Alerstam, T. The lobster navigators. Nature 421, 27–28 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/421027a

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