Geomagnetic Orientation Behavior in the PNW Sea Slug Tritonia: Research on a Not Yet Understood Sensory Mode with Implications for Survival in a Changing Climate

Tritonia orienting to bite polyps from a sea pen

Western Washington University has shifted to entirely online classes for Spring, 2020. As such, the Huxley Speaker Series is revisiting some of our favorite presentations from the Archives.

This talk was originally presented as part of the Huxley Speaker Series in Spring 2018.

Nudibranch mollusks not surprisingly orient to optimize finding and capturing sea pens, their prey.  How do these sea slugs do it in a complex sensory environment where odor cues are carried on water currents driven by tides, seasons,  local geography and changing climate factors?   Evidence from field work using SCUBA as well as electrophysiological recording from individual brain cells suggest they detect the earth’s feeble magnetic field and use it to determine the shoreward direction.  This information also provides critical cues to the location of their prey.