Thursday, January 28, 2010

Monarch Butterflies Reveal a Novel Way in Which Animals Sense Earth's Magnetic Field

Monarch butterflies resting in a tree. (Credit: iStockphoto/Paul Tessier)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 27, 2010) — Building on prior investigation into the biological mechanisms through which monarch butterflies are able to migrate up to 2,000 miles from eastern North America to a particular forest in Mexico each year, neurobiologists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) have linked two related photoreceptor proteins found in butterflies to animal navigation using the Earth's magnetic field.

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