Sense of Mystery Magnetoreception

“A Sense of Mystery: Researchers from various disciplines are homing in on the mechanics of magnetoreception, an enigmatic sense that some animals use to navigate the globe.” The Scientist, August 1, 2013.

“Most researchers in the field agree that the compass sense is likely seated in cryptochromes within the eye, and many are convinced that there is another sense, most likely a signpost sense, passed through the trigeminal nerve and probably based on some sort of iron-containing, magnetism-sensing cells in beaks or snouts. Then there is [David] Dickman and [Le-Qing] Wu’s idea: that both of these abilities may rely on receptors in the inner ear.”