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MAGNETIC ORIENTATION.

Organisms develop and evolve in the presence of the magnetic field

terrestrial and, therefore, there may be an evolutionary advantage in being able to detect this
field as it could be used, for example, for orientation. Thus, it should not be
surprising the existence of many species capable of orienting themselves using the
Earth's magnetic field.

It has been observed that during periods of magnetic inversions, occurrences have happened
mass extinctions or specializations in animals. The reasons can be
multiple, but one of them could be the loss of references in animals that are
capable of detecting the Earth's magnetic field.

These effects of magnetic fields on behavior have been observed.

a wide variety of organisms, and these beings have the possibility of detecting the
Earth's magnetic field and use that capability to orient oneself.

To demonstrate all these theories, studies have been conducted in various groups of
animals, as we will see below.

Magnetic orientation in birds and insects.

Based on the work of the Brown group, another group of researchers (Jungerman
y Rosenblum) conducted theoretical work on the possibility of the existence of a
magnetic induction mechanism for orienting animals in the air.

The evidence of this mechanism came from a classic work by Keeton at the end of the
70 in carrier pigeons. In that work, small magnetic bars were placed.
at the back of the head of a group of pigeons and their ability was compared
return to the cages of the dovehouse with those of a control group that only had bars
of copper. When the sky was covered, that is, on a cloudy day when it was not
I saw the Sun, the orientation of the pigeons carrying magnets became impossible.
while that of the control group remained and was able to return to the pigeon loft.

In a next step of the study, the magnets were replaced by Helmholtz coils.
they held onto the heads of the pigeons when the sky was overcast. They checked
that the flight direction depended on the orientation of the magnetic field generated
with the coils. It was also verified that the magnetic anomalies and storms
magnetic fields were affecting orientation. Later studies showed that, in addition
By having a magnetic sensitivity, pigeons could have a magnetic 'map'.

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It was clearly established that there is a direction of the pigeons through

of the geomagnetic field.

Subsequently, it was found that other birds, like the robin, and in particular the
migratory birds also oriented themselves by detecting the geomagnetic field. In
in particular, the robin was oriented based on the tilt in space of the
axial direction of the magnetic field lines.

In 1979, C. Walcott's group published an article in Science that threw out

land the theory of Jungerman and Rosenblum on the detection mechanism
magnetic fields in birds. Walcott's group confirmed, by dissecting
pigeons with non-magnetic instruments that these animals had material
magnetic in the head and neck. Most of the magnetic material was found
located in a tissue between the skull and the dura, in a small colored structure
black located between the brain and the skull. Each dove had a dipolar moment.
remnant magnetization of 10-8 - 10-9 Am2 that disappeared at 575ºC indicating that
it was Fe3O4, that is, magnetite. Another group found that there was genetic material and
magnetic sensitivity in the necks of pigeons and migratory crows, although not it
found in the head. The sensitivity of birds to changes in the magnetic field
it can be as low as 0.1-0.2 T (the Earth's magnetic field is 50 T).

Nowadays it is accepted that magnetite is the sensor, but to clarify the mechanism
It will be necessary to conduct very precise anatomical studies. What is clear is that
there is enough magnetic material inside the bird to locate the
direction of the geomagnetic field with high precision.

It has been discovered that almost all animals that use the magnetic field
terrestrial for orientation contain microscopic particles of magnetite that even
they are closely related to neurons in higher beings.
Although the question is whether an animal can directly detect a magnetic field
It cannot be answered at the current moment.

It is believed that the evolutionary origin of this magnetite is the formation of deposits.
minerals that are a byproduct of animal metabolism. Iron is a
trace element fundamental for life, which if the organism is unable to eliminate
it will oxidize inside forming magnetite inclusions.

The case of honey bees (Apis mellifera) shows that the mechanism of the circuit
Conducting to explain magnetic orientation is not possible in these small ones.
flying animals, since there is no space. But it has been proven that they are
clearly influenced by environmental magnetic fields, and in particular,

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they possess magnetic orientation These bees communicate the location of a source of
food to other members of the colony through an aerial dance. The angle between
the direction of the dance and the vertical indicates the angle between the food source and the
Solutions. When the magnetic field is canceled out by means of coils, they produce
errors in the dance angle and weak magnetic fields affect the direction of
the dance. It has also been proven that the construction of the honeycomb has a
magnetic orientation and that the sense of time of bees is influenced by
the vibrations of the Earth's magnetic field.

It has been shown that bees learn to discriminate weak magnetic anomalies.
superimposed on the terrestrial magnetic field in a very easy way. The average threshold
of sensitivity to small static magnetic anomalies superimposed on the field
The environmental terrestrial magnetic (50 T) is around 0.25 T, that is, a
relative sensitivity of 0.6%. The maximum individual sensitivity measured is 25 nT
(0.025 T), that is, a relative sensitivity of 0.06%. This sensitivity so
surprising is physically reasonable for a sensory-based system
magnetite. An estimate of the number of discrete sensory organs per bee
necessary for this sensitivity, based on the measurement of the magnetic moment, gives
as a result several million.

It has been found that bees have magnetite particles in their abdomen.
in addition to bands of cells around the abdominal segments that contain
numerous iron-rich granules, which are mainly iron oxide
hydrated, possible precursor of Fe3O4.

Magnetite has also been found in ants and butterflies, and it has been demonstrated
that these beings possess a magnetic orientation. However, it has not been
found nerve receptor cells that convert the magnetic signal into
nervous about what is not very clear how they are oriented.

From Electromagnetism to Bioelectromagnetism

Electromagnetism is the physical phenomenon in which it manifests and propagates.

electric energy in the form of waves and particles at the same time. It also receives the
name of electromagnetism the branch of physics that studies the phenomena
electrical and magnetic and unifies them in a single theory, whose foundations were
exposed by Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell. The theory of
electromagnetism established the relationship between electricity and magnetism by
to discover that any electric current generates an electromagnetic field, and

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Likewise, any moving magnetic field can generate a current.

electric.

The lines of the magnetic field flow

from the South Magnetic Pole and
they re-enter the balloon in the
northern extreme. Some animals
seem to be capable of understanding the
depth of the angle of inclination
of the field lines in any
location and use this knowledge
para ayudarles en su navegación.

One of the signs that animals use the magnetic field was observed by
casualty in the autumn of 1957. Hans Fromme, researcher at the Institute of Zoology of
Frankfurt, in Germany, noticed that some European robins that it kept in
cages were getting very agitated and fluttering around the southwest area of the cage. No
there was nothing unusual about this behavior: migratory birds in cages usually
behave this way at this time of year, and the European robins in Germany
they usually migrate to the south of Spain to spend the winter.

The interesting thing was that the birds that were locked in a room could not
see no sign, neither from the other robins, nor the sun, nor the stars, which were supposed to
podía servir para ayudarles a navegar. Sin embargo, actuaban según algo invisible, y
Fromme deduced that it was the Earth's magnetic field.

In the numerous experiments conducted by this researcher and others, there has been
It has been shown that many living beings use the magnetic field to move. Animals
as diverse as hamsters, salamanders, sparrows, the rainbow trout,
lobster, and all bacteria use it.

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According to John Phillips, a behavior biologist at the Polytechnic Institute.

Virginia detected this ability in all types of animals, from flies to frogs, without
there is no evidence that man has this "sixth sense", despite the fact that
our brain contains magnetite, the mineral that is thought to help the brains of
other animals to detect the magnetic field.

Now it is known that not only bacteria, insects, birds, and other animals
medium-sized animals have magnetosensors or magnetoreceptors that allow them
perceive and orient themselves according to the lines of flow of the Earth's magnetic field. Also

Large mammals like reindeer, horses, or cows possess some type of

magnetoreception mechanisms, which allow them to perceive and orient themselves according to the

sense of flow of terrestrial magnetism.

Flight of the birds

Birds are one of the few types of

animals that can really do
detect the Earth's magnetic field.
Aunque los mecanismos exactos se
they are studying actively, the
Scientists generally accept that the
birds use their sense of the field
magnetic for emigrating. For a bird
that migrates great distances, this sense called magnetoreception, is the
that allows it to maintain its course, even under weather conditions
adverse when there is little visibility.

Thepeak
In all birds, the short nerve endings in their beaks contain
sufficient iron to recognize magnetic resonance. This discovery
initially led scientists to believe that birds use their beaks to
navigate through the magnetic field. However, although iron is capable of
recognize the changes in the orientation of the magnetic field and its intensity,
there is no method to differentiate north from south. Moreover, the experiments

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recent studies have shown that a bird can be 'blinded' to this sense by
the breaking of these nerves and still being able to fly.

Theeye
Current research shows that there is a magnetic receptor in the
bird's eyes that can collect visual information about the field
Earth's magnetic field. The same experiments as the one mentioned
In section 1, they demonstrated that birds with some disability in their eyes
they could not fly at all, which proves that the role of the beak is secondary or
complementary to a magnetic receptor located in the eye. Interestingly, the
The right eye seems to be more important than the left eye.

Cryptochromes
Currently, scientists theorize that a bird's eye contains
proteins called "cryptochromes" that emit free radicals upon contact with the
light. These free radicals are influenced by the magnetic field, and that
influence is detected by a region of the bird's brain. There is no way of
to know what a bird "sees", but some propose that the sense
magnetic acts as a second layer of visual information, making it
the magnetic field looks similar to something like a shading.

Navigation
However, magnetoreception is considered a crucial component.
within the capacity of a bird to fly. Migratory birds fly to
too far from the ground to navigate by landmarks
and through the inclement weather, which makes visibility almost
null. Taking into account that some migratory birds such as the Arctic tern
fly up to 40,000 kilometers per year, the evolution and development of this
Magnetic sense is crucial for the survival of the species.

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