Ampullae of Lorenzini (IMAGE)

University of California - Santa Cruz

Ampullae of Lorenzini

Caption

(A and B) Skates and sharks locate their prey by detecting the weak electric fields naturally generated by biomechanical activity. (C) A network of electrosensory organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini is responsible for this sense. (D) An individual ampulla consists of a surface pore connected to a set of electrosensory cells by a long jelly-filled canal. Sharks and skate can sense fields as small as 5 nV/cm despite canals traveling through up to 25 cm of noisy biological tissue.

Credit

Luk Cox

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