Skip to main content

Table 1 Support and criticism for the “radical-pair” and “magnetite-based” magnetoreception hypotheses

From: The symbiotic magnetic-sensing hypothesis: do Magnetotactic Bacteria underlie the magnetic sensing capability of animals?

 

Support

Criticism

Radical–Pair

Experiments showing that birds can only sense the magnetic field under illumination with relative short wavelength, as opposed to longer wavelengths [41]

The effect of the magnetic field on the spin-state of the molecule has not been demonstrated, either in vitro or in vivo, under the Earth’s weak magnetic field, but only under a field orders of magnitude stronger [20, 47]

  

The activation mechanism is missing, meaning how the signal transduces to initiate a neural response.

Magnetite-Based

Magnetite crystals have been detected in magnetic sensing fish, reptiles and birds [18, 28, 48]

The magnetites found in some magnetic-sensing animals are not associated to the animals’ neuronal, or other tissue, but rather located in macrophages [30] or as contaminants [32]

 

Magnetotactic-bacteria (MTB) can act upon the field via similar magnetite crystals [2, 22]

No one has seen magnetite crystals serving as a ‘magnetic-sensor’ except in bacteria [20]

The activation mechanism is missing, meaning how the signal transduces to initiate a neural response.