WHAT GIVES RISE TO SHARKS' 'SIXTH SENSE'?
Shark have electrosensory organs that act like a 'sixth sense'
The ampullae of Lorenzini are visible as small pores in the skin around the head and on the underside of sharks, skates, and rays.
Each pore is open and connected to a set of electrosensory cells by a long canal filled with a clear, viscous jelly.
The AoL jelly likely contributes to this electrosensing function, yet the exact details of this contribution remain unclear.
'Skates and sharks have some of the most sensitive electroreceptors in the animal world,' said Dr David Julius, professor and chair of physiology at UCSF and senior author of a recent study on the mechanism.
'Understanding how this works is like understanding how proteins in the eye sense light - it gives us insight into a whole new sensory world,' he said.