Glass eels (Anguilla anguilla) have a magnetic compass linked to the tidal cycle.

ABSTRACT: The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) has one of the longest migrations in the animal kingdom. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean twice during its life history, migrating between the spawning area in the Sargasso Sea and Europe, where it is widely distributed. The leptocephalus larvae drift with the Gulf Stream and other currents for more than a year and metamorphose into glass eels when they arrive on the continental shelf and move toward coastal areas. The mechanisms underlying glass eel orientation toward the coast and into freshwater systems are poorly known. However, anguillid eels, including the glass eel life stage, have a geomagnetic sense, suggesting the possibility that they use Earth's magnetic field to orient toward the coast. To test this hypothesis, we used a unique combinat

SUBMITTER: Cresci A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5466372 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature