Science - Biology

Science Daily (March 8, 2007): Marine turtles almost always return to the same beach to lay their eggs. The egg-laying sites are often far from the feeding areas and the females cross several hundred kilometers of ocean with no visual landmarks. How do they manage to return to the same spot? They are the very old species on the earth. They have existed for over 100 million years, and they travel throughout the world's oceans.


A study by Simon Benhamou of the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology at Montpellier, France, together with other groups (CNRS, IRD, IFREMER, CEDTM, University of Pisa), shows that the marine turtles use a relatively simple navigation system involving the earth's magnetic field, and this allows them to return to the same egg-laying site without having the ability to correct for the deflection of ocean currents. This work, published in "Current Biology and Marine Ecology Progress Series", should allow better conservation strategies for this endangered species.
Read more at:
http://earthisours.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-do-marine-turtles-return-to-same.html