Scientists have finally figured out how dung beetles use celestial navigation to return home
For a creature that spends all of its time scouring for poop to roll into a ball for dinner, it’s pretty incredible that the dung beetle is also a master of the sky, using a primitive form of celestial navigation to make its way home after a long day of dung collecting.
Scientists have known about the dung beetle’s unique navigation technique for years, but couldn’t figure out exactly how it was done. Now a new study appears to have cracked the dung beetle code, and it turns out their star-gazing abilities are even more impressive than previously thought, because they’re essentially taking a mental snapshot of the night sky and using that to find their way around.
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