Humans often argue about whether or not we have a sixth sense. Ha! Six is paltry. Senses other than the standard five are plentiful in nature. Here are a few useful senses that some animals have, but humans (mostly) don’t.
Birds, butterflies, salmon, sharks, sea turtles, and even bacteria are a few of the animals that navigate their worlds by detecting magnetic fields. For example, a recent study conducted at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory found that sharks use the geomagnetic field like a map, guiding them on their long migrations.
Scientists still aren’t sure how animals pull this off, but one intriguing possibility is that bacteria are to thank for this special skill. A type of bacteria called magnetotactic bacteria uses magnetic fields to guide their movements. In a 2020 study, researchers reported finding magnetotactic bacteria in loggerhead sea turtles, penguins, Atlantic right whales, and brown ...
