What provides animals with the ability to navigate using the earths magnetic field lines?
Many animals, ants, bees, birds, and some humans, have magnetic minerals, such as magnetite and hematite, in their bodies and brains that are sensitive to the magnetic orientation of the Earth’s magnetic field, which varies on a daily and longer period variations in the Earth’s magnetic field. Some people have a compass in their heads. I think my mom did, but, since I visually navigate by the angle of sunlight or the stars , I’m not sure, now, If my mom actually had a compass in her head, or if she was just navigating using the same the same visual clues I do.
