Bizarre Alien Senses: Difference between revisions

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A subtrope of [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]. Frequently correlated with [[Eyeless Face]]. Contrast [[Blindfolded Vision]], in which someone denied their normal eyesight relies on other sensory modes, or [[Super Senses]], when normal human senses are enhanced. For a different sort of alien feeling, see [[Inhuman Emotion]].

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== Comics ==

* In the "vegetable sex" scene from ''Saga of the [[Swamp Thing]]'', Abigail temporarily experiences Swamp Thing's ability to sense life force, and perceives the wetlands as a shimmering field of glowing vegetation, dotted with bright life-sparks of animals.

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== [[Real Life]] ==

* Some ~~fishes~~ can sense electricity. Such electroreception is found in lampreys, cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, chimeras) and in some varieties of bony fish.

* Some species of fish can sense electricity. Such electroreception is found in lampreys, cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, chimeras) and in some varieties of bony fish.

** The platypus has this too, as does at least one species of freshwater dolphin.

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* Fish also detect motion in the water with their lateral lines.

* Echolocation is well-known in bats and toothed cetaceans. Shrews also use this means of sensing, as do cave swiftlets and oilbirds.

** Subverted with flying foxes and baleen whales, which don't use sonar even though most people assume all bats or whales do.

* Thermographic "vision" is found in pit vipers, many boas and pythons, and vampire bats.

* [[w:Magnetoreception|Magnetoreception]] -- the ability to sense magnetic fields -- has been found in animals ranging from bacteria to higher vertebrates, with birds being the most obvious examples. Humans don't, but oddly possess a protein in the eye which could provide the sense.

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* Fish detect motion in the water with their lateral lines.