Year: 1980
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT During the past few years, a wide variety of living organisms have been found which biologically synthesize the ferrimagnetic mineral, magnetite (Fe3O4) First discovered as a biogenic material in the teeth of a primitive mollusc, the chiton (Polyplacophora, Lowenstam 1962), it has since been found as an organic precipitate in magnetically sensitive honey bees (Gould, Kirschvink & Deffeyes, 1978), homing pigeons (Walcott, Gould & Kirschvink, 1979) and bacteria (Frankel, Blakemore & Wolfe, 1979). In all of these organisms (except the chiton), the magnetite is apparently used to orient with or detect the direction and intensity of the earth’s magnetic field (Kirschvink, 1979; Kirschvink & Gould, in review).
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology
DOI: 10.1242/jeb.86.1.345
Author: J. L. Kirschvink
Institution: Princeton University
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W1762521817