Pigeon homing skills stay elusive
"The mystery of how animals detect magnetic fields has just got more mysterious." Image: David Keays Iron-containing cells in the beaks of pigeons were thought to be the magnetic field receptors responsible for the pigeon's famous navigational abilities. However, research published in Nature shows that this is not the case and the search for the elusive magnetoreceptors must go on.The international team showed that the cells are macrophages (an immune cell) and not the nerve cells that magnetoreceptors are likely to be. By using sophisticated microanalysis in the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility at the University of Western Australia authors Dr Jeremy Shaw and Prof. Martin Saunders showed that the iron inside the cells was not in the mineral form that might be expected for a magnetoreceptor. Macrophages all over the body contain iron from the breakdown of old red blood cells. The macrophage cells in the beak are no different....