Review highlights hepatic iron-containing macrophages as a potential geomagnetic sensor in homing pigeons, suggesting an unexpected peripheral basis for avian navigation.
While navigating home, homing pigeons can extract directional, that is, compass, information from the earth's magnetic field. This navigational mechanism may begin with a peripheral transduction process based on iron-containing macrophages located in the liver. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
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Verner P. Bingman (2026) studied this question.
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