In a First, Scientists Pinpoint Biological Sensor Animals’ Use the Earth’s Magnetic Field to Navigate

The University of Texas announced on their website that the Austin-based college's researchers managed to identify for the very first time the sensor an animal uses to navigate using the Earth's magnetic field. The animal researchers managed to identify the sensor in was a tiny worm, their website said.

The research is really significant in means of discovering the mysteries of how animal's biological navigators actually work.

The website noted that many marine, land and "aviatory" animals such as sea turtles, wolves and migrating geese were long known to use the Earth's magnetic field to facilitate navigation, but the science was neither able to locate such an organ, field nor able to shed light on the mechanisms of the phenomenon, up until recently.

The sensor researchers discovered was in worm species called C.elegans and the sensor is thought to be shared by other animals as well. C.elegans's sensor is a structure of microscopic scale, which is located at the end of a neuron, located in the tiny worm's brain, the website said.

An assistant professor from the research team, Jon Pierce-Shimomura said, "Chances are that the same molecules will be used by cuter animals like butterflies and birds. This gives us a first foothold in understanding magnetosensation in other animals."

In order to be able to compare the magnetic sensory systems of different worms, researchers studied worms from several regions of the world, namely Australia, Hawaii and England. The worms would navigate in tubes towards the direction where the magnetic field of the Earth would be if they were at "home." The magnetic field changes depending on which part of the Earth you are located and worms use their magnetic sensory abilities to tell  "up" from "down."

The species C.elegans was previously being studied by neuroscientists and engineers to shed light into addiction and Alzheimer's disease, during which researchers discovered that the species was able to sense humidity. Then researchers, who were amazed by the finding and wanted to investigate what other sensory abilities the species might be able to utilize, began this study, proving their curiosity and hard work was worth it.