Most vertebrates -- including humans -- descended from ancestor with sixth sense

www.eurekalert.org

Public release date: 11-Oct-2011
Contact: Joe Schwartz
Cornell University
Most vertebrates -- including humans -- descended from ancestor with sixth sense

ITHACA, N.Y. — People experience the world through five senses but sharks, paddlefishes and certain other aquatic vertebrates have a sixth sense: They can detect weak electrical fields in the water and use this information to detect prey, communicate and orient themselves.

A study in the Oct. 11 issue of Nature Communications that caps more than 25 years of work finds that the vast majority of vertebrates – some 30,000 species of land animals (including humans) and a roughly equal number of ray-finned fishes – descended from a common ancestor that had a well-developed electroreceptive system.

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