近日，英国牛津大学Patrick Lewin等科学家在《科学》（Science）发表研究，揭示了快速纵向飞行导致时间偏移和太阳罗盘误差。

许多动物利用太阳罗盘引导其移动，有时跨越数千公里。持续使用太阳罗盘依赖于内源时钟追踪太阳的弧线，然而东西向旅行的动物会经历时间偏移，可能导致其内部时钟与当地时间之间的不匹配。研究人员利用GPS揭示，曼岛鹱（Puffinus puffinus）在归巢飞行期间经历这种偏移，从而在太阳罗盘定向中产生可预测的误差。即使曼岛鹱在沿岸跟随期间能够获得不依赖罗盘的线索，它们仍会使用太阳罗盘。研究人员的发现为野外时间生物学研究提供了新途径，提示快速纵向移动可能影响其他受内源时钟支配的过程，并且保守的时间生物学机制对导航施加了实质性约束。

附：英文原文

Title: Rapid longitudinal flights cause time shifts and Sun compass error

Author: Patrick Lewin, Joe Wynn, Joe Morford, Oliver Padget, Lewis Lancaster-Reeves, Katrina Siddiqi-Davies, Hector Bailey, Sarah Bond, Madeline Davis, Ben Dean, Annette L. Fayet, Robin Freeman, Natasha Gillies, Stephanie M. Harris, Paris Jaggers, Holly Kirk, Lou Maurice, Elizabeth Morgan, Craig Nisbet, Ellie Owen, Joe Parker, Akiko Shoji, Martyna Syposz, Tim Guilford

Issue&Volume: 2026-10-29

Abstract: Many animals use the Sun compass to guide their movement, sometimes over thousands of kilometers. Consistent use of the Sun compass relies on the endogenous clock to track the Sun’s arc, yet animals traveling east-west experience time shifts, potentially causing mismatches between their internal clock and local time. Using GPS, we reveal that Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus) experience such shifts during homing flights, generating predictable errors in Sun compass orientation. Use of the Sun compass persists even when shearwaters have access to compass-independent cues during coast following. Our findings provide a new avenue for chronobiology research in the wild, suggesting that rapid longitudinal movements may affect other processes governed by the endogenous clock and that conserved chronobiological mechanisms impose substantial constraints on navigation.

DOI: 10.1126/science.adz2542

Source:https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz2542