Thanks Elizabeth. Interesting stuff. From the first article listed: "According to research by the University of Frankfurt, these pigeons have iron-containing structures in their beaks, which help them sense the Earth's magnetic field independent of their motion and posture, and thus identify their geographical position." With all due respect to the researchers at U-Frankfurt, they may have theorized or proven very specific details about this topic but they are at best building on the research of others that was done decades ago. The presence of biogenic magnetite in living things, including pigeons, and the ability of living things to use this for navigation was discovered 30+ years ago by Cal Tech researcher Joseph Kirschvink. Here's an article from 1979 which specifically mentions the "small, unilateral structure between the brain and skull" of pigeons which contains the magnetite that they use for navigation: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~jkirschvink/pdfs/Pigeon.pdf And here's a broader research paper from 2001: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/users/jkirschvink/pdfs/COINS.pdf (Dr. Kirschvink went to my high school, which is partially how I come to know about his studies.) --VH From: discuss-bounces@mickaboo.org [mailto:discuss-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Young Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 9:13 AM To: MickaCoo@mickaboo.org; General mickaboo discussion Subject: [Mickaboo Discuss] OT: Top 10 smartest animals-pigeons are number 8 Thanks to Jaclyn for sharing these links- http://www.care2.com/greenliving/7-animals-smarter-than-humans.html http://www.care2.com/greenliving/top-10-smartest-animals.html?page=3