Sixth Sense: Discovered First Animal Organ That Sees Magnetic Field

Mole-Rats Ability To Navigate Via Detection Of Earth's Magnetic Field Lies In Its Eyes

Mole-Rats Ability To Navigate Via Detection Of Earth's Magnetic Field Lies In Its Eyes

A group of scientists has recently claimed that they have discovered the first-ever pair of eyes in a mammal that has the ability to detect magnetic field generated on the earth, classifying it a sixth sense. There are several pieces of research going on regarding the detection of a possible sixth sense inside a human body, which allows that body to do certain things in a mysterious fashion, along with its complex mechanism of working.

Sixth sense in mammals

It has been long-suspected by researchers and scientists that certain group of animals, including birds, has the ability to detect the magnetic field and use it to their advantage in navigation while flying.

Dogs are also suspected of navigating through the surrounding area in a similar sense by using their pseudo-extra sensory perception, which could also be termed as the presence of an extra or sixth sense in them.

According to a recent study conducted suggests that the microscopic magnetotactic bacteria, which has been found to be inhabited in some animals, is the cause behind the animal’s ability to detect and navigate through naturally occurring magnetic fields of the earth.

The animal itself does not possess the ability of a sixth sense.  Some of the researchers are positive that some humans who also have the sixth sense might also inhabit some of the magnetotactic bacteria inside them.

Despite all these fascinating theories regarding the sixth sense in mammals, no proper evidence has been collected yet that could prove the underlying biological mechanism that provides a strange yet useful ability to certain species of animals to see and detect magnetic fields for navigational purposes.

Magnetic navigation research study on mole rat

According to the group of scientists working at the University of Duisburg-Essen located in Germany, are currently researching the unusual specie of Ansell’s mole-rat and its purpose and working about how it navigates through dark enclosed spaces with no light to provide visibility of the surrounding area, as the working might be based on its possible sixth sense.

The mole rats are cylindrical furry creatures which large size incisor teeth sticking out of their upper lip has a habit of residing in the southeast side of their den. The size of their eye diameter is just two millimeters and is basically used to distinguish dark and light in the place in front of them.

To the mole rats, vision is not an import part of their senses, and their locomotion does not depend on their eyesight, but uses other sensory mechanisms to travel and move with the possible presence of an unusual sixth sense.

To test this theory regarding the importance of vision in mole rats, researchers surgically removed the eyeballs of a few mole rats by the process called enucleation to test their theory.

Multiple tests were performed on the same set of animals for the time duration of 18 months, after which it was confirmed that after enucleation, the mole rats’ behavior does not change as compared to the time when they had their vision intact.

The scientists also developed a special nesting ground with the artificial placement of the magnetic field generated to test of the homemaking capabilities of the mole rats. The control group animals with normal eyes and those with removing vision nested on random places on the artificial nesting ground, which indicated that the specific mechanism for navigating through dark places and their sensitivity to magnetic forces as part of a sixth sense is located in their eyes.

The study concluded that the removal of eyes from a mole rat led towards permanent removal of magnetic navigation. This study is the first one conducted across the world for identifying the magnetoreception organ located inside a mammal providing an extra sixth sense.

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