ArticleCommunications earth & environment2025
Magnetic vector tomography reveals giant magnetofossils are optimised for magnetointensity reception.
Article in Communications earth & environment, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Extending Field Limits in Nanoscale Magnetic Imaging With Metamaterial-Inspired Magnetic Flux Concentrators.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Magnetic vector tomography reveals giant magnetofossils are optimised for magnetointensity reception.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Giant magnetofossils are unusual, micron-sized biogenic magnetite particles found in sediments dating back at least 97 million years. Their distinctive morphologies are the product of biologically controlled mineralisation, yet the identity of their biomineralising organism, and the biological function they serve, remain a mystery. It is currently thought that the organism exploited magnetite's mechanical properties for protection. Here we explore an alternative hypothesis, that it exploited magnetite's magnetic properties for the purpose of magnetoreception. We present a three-dimensional magnetic vector tomography study of a giant magnetofossil and assess its magnetoreceptive potential. Our results reveal a single magnetic vortex that displays an optimised response to spatial variations in the intensity of Earth's magnetic field. This magnetic trait may have conferred an evolutionary advantage to mobile marine organisms, providing an upper age limit on the development of navigational magnetoreception and raising the possibility that earlier evidence of this sense may yet be preserved in the fossil record. More broadly, this work provides a blueprint for assessing the morphological and magnetic evidence for putative biogenic iron oxide particles, which are a key component in the search for early life on Earth and Mars.
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