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December 2, 2008 9:45:42 AM CST

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55M Monarchs Can't Be Wrong

Posted Feb 11, 08 4:58 PM CST in Science & Health 

(Newser) – The 1-ounce monarch butterfly may have a thing or two to teach us: Each year, some 55 million monarchs make a 4,000-mile multigenerational journey from Canada to Mexico, returning to the same forest, often the same tree, without relying on GPS. How? The insects rely on a unique internal clock that may be the prototype for our own, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Two types of light-sensitive genes guide the butterflies, which breed and die every few weeks en route, leaving the next generation to continue the journey. New research shows the gene working like a stopwatch to create a sense of how much time has passed. That innate chronometer allows butterflies to navigate over astonishing distances. "In its biochemical essence," the Journal writes, "the monarch butterfly is a distillation of time and light, given wing."

Source Wall Street Journal

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Humans share a light-sensitive gene with the monarch butterfly that scientists say could be what guides our sleeping cycle. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)   (Associated Press)
The monarch butterfly, pictured in this file photo, travels 4,000 miles annually and uses its genes to guide it.   (Getty Images)
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genes • insects • migration • butterflies • biological clock • monarch butterflies


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