The Light-dependent Magnetic Compass

In English Animals can detect different parameters of the geomagnetic field by two principal independent magnetoreception mechanisms: (1) a light-dependent process detecting the axial course and the inclination angle of the geomagnetic field lines, providing the animals with magnetic compass information (inclination compass), and (2) a magnetite-mediated process, providing magnetic map information (map sense). In vertebrates like birds and newts, light-dependent magnetic compass orientation depends on both wavelength and intensity of light, and experimental evidence suggests that magnetic compass information is perceived by magneto-sensitive photoreceptors, possibly containing cryptochromes, in the retina or the pineal.