Electroreception, sometimes written as electroception, is the biological ability to receive and make use of electrical impulses. It is much more common among aquatic creatures, as water is a far superior conductor to air. There are two main modalities of electroreception. During the "active" electroreception, the animal generates electric fields that will be distorted by the environment and then sensed by the electroreceptor organs, in contrast with the "passive" electroreception, when the animal does not generate any electric fields and senses the electric fields generated in the environment. An example of animals that generate their own electric fields are the weakly-electric fish, an example of animals that use the environmental electric fields are sharks and rays. A girl in a swimming pool full of water Water (from the Old English waeter; c. ... In science and engineering, conductors are materials that contain movable charges of electricity. ...

During the process of evolution, different life forms have learned to extract biologically relevant information from their electrical environment and use it to adjust their behavior accordingly.

Many fish have an electroception sense, believed to be associated with the lateral line system. Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus: the most abundant species of fish in the world. ... Senses are the physiological methods of perception. ... In fish, the lateral line is a sense organ used to detect movement in the surrounding water. ...

Electric fields simulating prey in the seawater are sufficient to elicit robust feeding responses, showing that sharks and rays in their final attack heavily rely on their electric sense. The DC electric fields that the sharks respond to are as low as 0.005μV/cm, what makes them the most sensitive animals know today.

Sharks have an electric sense that works through the ampullae of Lorenzini, receptors connected to the seawater by pores on their snouts and other zones of the head which allow them to sense electric fields in the water; a problem with the early submarine telegraph cables was the damage by sharks that sensed the electric fields produced by the cables. It is possible that sharks may use Earth's magnetic field to navigate the oceans using this sense. Orders Hexanchiformes Squaliformes Pristiophoriformes Squatiniformes Heterodontiformes Orectolobiformes Carcharhiniformes Lamniformes Sharks are a group (superorder Selachimorpha) of fish, with a full cartilaginous skeleton, a streamlined body plan, with normally 5, but up to 7 (depending on species) gill slits along the side of, or beginning slightly behind, the head (in some... The ampullae of Lorenzini are special sensing organs, which are a network of jelly-filled canals found on the heads of Sharks, or dogfish. ... A submarine communications cable is a cable laid beneath the sea to carry telecommunications between countries. ... It has been suggested that Magnetic field density be merged into this article or section. ... [[Image:http://www. ...

The electric eel, besides its ability to generate high voltage electric shocks, actually uses lower voltage pulses for navigation and sensing prey in the turbid waters in which it lives. Other gymnotiform fish also have the capability. Binomial name Electrophorus electricus Linnaeus, 1766 The electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) is a species of fish. ... This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. ... Families Apteronotidae (ghost knifefishes) Eigenmanniidae (obsolete?) Gymnotidae (naked-back knifefishes and electric eels) Hypopomidae Rhamphichthyidae Sternopygidae The gymnotiforms are an order (Gymnotiformes) of knifefishes that have organs adapted to the exploitation of bioelectricity. ...

Monotremes are the only known mammals that possess the ability of electroception. The platypus is known to have the most acute sense. Families Kollikodontidae(extinct) Ornithorhynchidae- Platypus Tachyglossidae- Echidnas Steropodontidae(extinct) Monotremes (monos, single + trema, hole; refers to the cloaca) are mammals that lay eggs, instead of giving birth to live young like marsupials (Metatheria) and placental mammals (Eutheria). ... Binomial name Ornithorhynchus anatinus (Shaw, 1799) The Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a small, half-aquatic mammal endemic to the eastern part of Australia, and one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young (the other four are echidnas). ...

A recent study has suggested that the same genes that contribute to a sharks sense of electrorecption may also be responsible at least in part to the development of facial structures in humans. Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ...

External links

• ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research
• Article in LiveScience about genetic link between sharks and humans