|

Eyes are essential for magnetoreception in a mammal

ByRichard Nissen Reading Time: 1 minute

Here is another interesting paper:

Mole-rat lives underground and basically cannot see and is often studied to understand how they navigate.

Caspar, K. R., Moldenhauer, K., Moritz, R. E., Němec, P., Malkemper, E. P. & Begall, S. 2020 Eyes are essential for magnetoreception in a mammal. Journal of The Royal Society Interface17, 20200513. doi: doi:10.1098/rsif.2020.0513. Caspar2 2020 

Several groups of mammals use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation, but their magnetosensory organ remains unknown.

The Ansell’s mole-rat (Fukomys anselli, Bathyergidae, Rodentia) is a microphthalmic subterranean rodent with innate magnetic orientation behaviour.

Previous studies on this species proposed that its magnetoreceptors are located in the eye. To test this hypothesis, we assessed magnetic orientation in mole-rats after the surgical removal of their eyes compared to untreated controls. Initially, we demonstrate that this enucleation does not lead to changes in routine behaviours, including locomotion, feeding and socialising.

We then studied magnetic compass orientation by employing a well-established nest-building assay under four magnetic field alignments. In line with previous studies, control animals exhibited a significant preference to build nests in magnetic southeast.

By contrast, enucleated mole-rats built nests in random magnetic orientations, suggesting an impairment of their magnetic sense.

The results provide robust support for the hypothesis that mole-rats perceive magnetic fields with their minute eyes, probably relying on magnetite-based receptors in the cornea.

Similar Posts

  • Bottlenose dolphins can use learned vocal labels to address each other

    See this link http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/07/17/1304459110.abstract Editor’s Comment: This piece is in line with all our thoughts that Dolphin whistles and calls are in fact the individual’s name or call sign. These ‘vocalisations’ are not language, but more like “come in No.9 I want to communicate with you”. We still believe that Dolphins actually communicate telepathically. If…

  • The Common Toad: Bufo, bufo.bufo

    Observations from the “Observer’s book of British wild animals” first published in 1938. It was compiled by W.J.Stoke. “I found this piece fascinating as it describes the navigational skills of Toads.  There are also other works that suggests that Newts operate in a similar way, making long journeys out of the water but not getting…

  • Summary of ideas Spring 2014

    Intro I have put together this article to spell out some of the thinking that I have come across recently.  A lot is highly contentious (such as Torsion waves) but as we struggle to understand how animals (and humans) navigate effortlessly, ideas which seemed so strong suddenly seem to be beset by impossible conditions.  We…

  • Animal Navigation a new theory for 2025

    How animals navigate has been a mystery forever. At present, the prevailing theory is that animal navigation is based on magnetic information. But there are huge problems with this approach. In order to use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate by, you need to know where you are and where you are going, as well…