A Sixth Sense in Bats?
When the term sixth sense is used, people may think it refers to some kind of psychic stuff. Not necessarily. There is an established set of five senses that humans have as well as many animals, but there may be some that are unknown or mostly untested.
Bats are creepy to some people. Part of that can be blamed by silly movies, Halloween-type images, obscurity, and odd habits. If you study on it a spell, pets that people own have some strange characteristics that we excuse because the pets are familiar. Do pets have a sixth sense? Bats might.
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| California leaf-nosed bat, National Park Service (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) |
Migrations of birds and animals has long been a subject of study. It has been determined that Earth's magnetic field (that force shield that protects the planet) gives critters something to use for navigation. Great. How do bats use it? Eye particles.
Researchers interfered with bats in flight and conducted an experiment. (Although scientists can be cruel when getting what they want, the bats were apparently unharmed and able to take up where they left off.) The entire process shows the specified complexity of the Creator's design work, and is unexplainable by evolutionary concepts.
Echolocation (or SONAR—Sound Navigation and Ranging) is not the only method a bat employs to get its bearings. Like some other animals, migrating bats can make use of the earth’s magnetic field to orientate themselves, including flying over large stretches of featureless ocean. This ability is called magnetoreception, and has been referred to as a sixth sense. Tiny particles of magnetic iron oxide (magnetite; Fe3O4) are thought to play a role. The mechanism is far from clear, but the cornea, a transparent ‘window’ in front of the iris and pupil of the eye, has been suggested as a possibly significant part of this navigation system in mammals:
To read the rest, navigate your way over to "Bats ‘see’ the earth’s magnetic field." You may also like to see "Still no Sign of Bat Evolution."