Free Republic

Salmon Use Sophisticated Compass Cells by Brian Thomas, M.S. | Jul. 30, 2012 How does the salmon find its way from the big, wide ocean to the same stream, hundreds of miles away to the exact same spawning ground of its birth? Studies have shown that the fish use their acute sense of smell to navigate, whereby chemoreceptor cells in their noses detect specific chemicals. Other studies have shown that salmon and other animals somehow also use an internal compass. Researchers have finally discovered it. The salmon compasses were hard to find because they are so small. Individual cells contain...

Human interaction with animals could be causing evolution to go into reverse, says a report by the Royal Society, Britain's science academy. A study of finches on the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific – finches are the same birds that were said to have inspired Charles Darwin's groundbreaking work on evolution - has shown that some could be losing their distinctive beaks in response to living near humans. Finches on the islands have developed different sizes of beak - but when people live in close proximity to the birds, their beaks revert to an intermediate size, the report says. Andrew...