Historical: Swedish and German Scientists Uncover GPSs in Bird Eyes

For forty years scientists have known that birds somehow had a sense of earth's magnetic field and could navigate it. But they could not have known how they did so until now.

Two teams recently identified that birds can actually visualize the magnetosphere, writes BigThink, translate Periscope.

One study comes from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, where researchers have studied European fungi. Another was made at the University of Lund in Sweden, where scientists have examined birds “Zebra fineches”.

In the late 1960 ' s, Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois had proposed the theory that migratory animals, including birds, should contain a certain form of molecule in their eyes or brains in response to the magnetic field.

And the evidence has already supported this theory. Studies by both teams have focused on a protein class known as cryptocromics.

Both teams found that there was a particular type of cryptocromic protein in their birds ' retinas, known as the Cry4, which are sensitive to the light blue. This, however, is the first time magnetic receptors have been discovered in animals. /Periscope