avian magnetoreception elaborate iron mineral containing dendrites in the upper beak seem to be a common feature of birds鸟类磁受作用复杂的铁矿产包含树突上鸟的嘴似乎是一个共同的特征.pdf

Avian Magnetoreception: Elaborate Iron Mineral Containing Dendrites in the Upper Beak Seem to Be a Common Feature of Birds 1 2 2 3 2 Gerald Falkenberg , Gerta Fleissner *, Kirsten Schuchardt , Markus Kuehbacher , Peter Thalau , Henrik 4 4 1 2 Mouritsen , Dominik Heyers , Gerd Wellenreuther , Guenther Fleissner ¨ 1 Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor HASYLAB at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, Germany, 2 Institut fur Zellbiologie und Neurowissenschaften, ¨ ¨ Goethe-Universitat, Frankfurt a. M., Germany, 3 Abt. Elementanalytik, Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy, Berlin, Germany, 4 Institut fur Biologie und ¨ Umweltwissenschaften, Carl von Ossietzky-Universitat, Oldenburg, Germany Abstract The magnetic field sensors enabling birds to extract orientational information from the Earth’s magnetic field have remained enigmatic. Our previously published results from homing pigeons have made us suggest that the iron containing sensory dendrites in the inner dermal lining of the upper beak are a candidate structure for such an avian magnetometer system. Here we show that similar structures occur in two species of migratory birds (garden warbler, Sylvia borin and European robin, Erithacus rubecula) and a non-migratory bird,