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Sensory biology

Search for the compass needles

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The idea that bird orientation is guided by magnetic-sensing structures in the animals' beaks has been challenged by the suggestion that the iron-containing cells are macrophages, which have no link to the brain. See Letter p.367

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Figure 1: Ironing out magnetoreception.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Henrik Mouritsen is at the Research Center for Neurosensory Sciences and the Institut für Biologie und Umweltwissenschaften, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany.,

    Henrik Mouritsen

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  1. Henrik Mouritsen
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Correspondence to Henrik Mouritsen.

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Mouritsen, H. Search for the compass needles. Nature 484, 320–321 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/484320a

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