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RE: Birds can navigate by using the Earth’s magnetic field, and scientists have recently discovered a protein in the eye that is likely responsible for this ability

in #nature7 years ago

That's a good question, actually! There is a Cry3 protein, but it seems to be rare in vertebrates, and while it is related to the other cryptochromes, it is kind of unclear if (or to what extent) it plays a part in the biological sleep cycle like the other ones. It's more commonly refered to as Cry-DASH, and it seems like we don't really know too much about this protein yet.

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Thanks for the answer and the referenced article! Didn't know this would have led to a mystery :)