Magnetoreception is like an internal compass that animals use in their journeys, using the Earth’s magnetic field. It helps migratory birds navigate across the central Asian flyway, for example, or turtles, fish and other animals travel across vast distances. Recent research raises new questions about the evolutionary origins of magnetoreception and suggests that it may […]

But recent research uncovered much larger magnetofossils. Sediments dating back as far as 56 million years ago revealed ‘giant’ magnetofossils thought to be biomineralised by an (unknown) organism that lived during that era.

“We’re not talking about simple bacteria here, rather about more complex organisms. Something that benefited from being able to navigate over large distances and is also common enough that they leave a fossil record,” says Richard J. Harrison, professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge; the leading author of the study on giant magnetofossils, published last year.

“Organisms originally developed the ability to grow small magnetite crystals, but then over time, they learned that actually, these larger ones are much better suited to navigational magnetoreception,” says Harrison, and adds, “to me, it’s not a giant crazy leap to say that maybe some organisms just grow those crystals in one giant crystal rather than trying to build it out of lots of tiny little magnetite bricks.”

link to the Nano Paleo Magnetism project website https://nanopaleomag.esc.cam.ac.uk/about-us/