• DOI:10.1023/A:1009214526685
• Corpus ID: 39216462

Superparamagnetic Magnetite in the Upper Beak Tissue of Homing Pigeons

@article{Hanzlik2004SuperparamagneticMI,
  title={Superparamagnetic Magnetite in the Upper Beak Tissue of Homing Pigeons},
  author={Marianne Hanzlik and Ch Heunemann and Elke Holtkamp-R{\"o}tzler and Michael Winklhofer and Nikolai P. Petersen and Gerta Fleissner},
  journal={Biometals},
  year={2004},
  volume={13},
  pages={325-331}
}

• M. Hanzlik, C. Heunemann, +3 authors G. Fleissner
• Published 1 December 2000
• Biology
• Biometals

Homing pigeons have been subject of various studies trying to detect magnetic material which might be involved in magnetic field perception. Here we focus on the upper-beak skin of homing pigeons, a region that has previously been shown to contain nerves sensitive to changes of the ambient magnetic field. We localized Fe3+ concentrations in the subcutis and identified the material by transmission electronmicroscopy (TEM) as aggregates of magnetite nanocrystals (with grain sizes between 1 and 5 nm). The particles form clusters of 1–3 μm diameter, which are arranged in distinct coherent elongated structures, associated with nervous tissue and located between fat cells. Complementary low-temperature magnetic measurements confirm the microscopic observations of fine-grained superparamagnetic particles in the tissue. Neither electron-microscopic nor magnetic measurements revealed any single-domain magnetite in the upper-beak skin tissue.