Check out the "aquatic ape hypothesis". It is plausible that humanoids evolve with water being an essential part of their lives and still live on land. In this case, something like electroreception might evolve given the right circumstances of course - there need to be electrical fields for starters. I hope I read your question correctly, it could be interpreted as "my humanoids live in the desert with almost no water" - in which case it is kind of obsolete but not really. Just ignore all the water bits. Yes, some land animals on earth have that ability, but there must be a reason why we didn't evolve that sense - so I conclude that it wasn't enough stimulation/need for it. But also note that you can sometimes feel electrical fields, when all your body hair starts to spread out because your body is charged - you can feel that actually.

Here is what I would do, but I'm no evolutionary biologist. I hope this would be plausible to enough readers:

There is this organism (say a plant) that is poisonous and produces a weak electrical field. There is another plant/fish whatever that copies that electrical field to scare off predators. Your humanoids and their ancestors love to eat that organism. Variations are countless, from the initial plant not being poisonous to the humanoids to food growing where there are natural electrical fields (different question how they might get there) and so on.

I think one should have this in a more aquatic setting. Yes, there is no reason why this wouldn't work in air, but I think your question has a bit of a "what is the most likely way" quality to it. You could imagine a completely different reason for electric fields on your planet.

The problem with non-aquatic electrical fields of course is that they need to be stronger, maybe resulting in regular shock. If you go for the desert option with little water, maybe choose an environment where not getting electrocuted is essential. How to construct this planet is a different question.

Check out the "aquatic ape hypothesis". It is plausible that humanoids evolve with water being an essential part of their lives and still live on land. In this case, something like electroreception might evolve given the right circumstances of course - there need to be electrical fields for starters. I hope I read your question correctly, it could be interpreted as "my humanoids live in the desert with almost no water" - in which case it is kind of obsolete but not really. Just ignore all the water bits. Yes, some land animals on earth have that ability, but there must be a reason why we didn't evolve that sense - so I conclude that it wasn't enough stimulation/need for it. But also note that you can sometimes feel electrical fields, when all your body hair starts to spread out because your body is charged - you can feel that actually.

Here is what I would do, but I'm no evolutionary biologist. I hope this would be plausible to enough readers:

There is this organism (say a plant) that is poisonous and produces a weak electrical field. There is another plant/fish whatever that copies that electrical field to scare off predators. Your humanoids and their ancestors love to eat that organism. Variations are countless, from the initial plant not being poisonous to the humanoids to food growing where there are natural electrical fields (different question how they might get there) and so on.

I think one should have this in a more aquatic setting. Yes, there is no reason why this wouldn't work in air, but I think your question has a bit of a "what is the most likely way" quality to it.

The problem with non-aquatic electrical fields of course is that they need to be stronger, maybe resulting in regular shock. If you go for the desert option with little water, maybe choose an environment where not getting electrocuted is essential. How to construct this planet is a different question.

You could imagine a completely different reason for electric fields on your planet. For example your humanoids needed to go someplace for seasonal change and that is made obvious by regular strong solar winds that charge the atmosphere or strong storms. The options really are limitless, but I still feel the most intuitive way is having your land-living humanoids be in water a lot which is even how we might have evolved.

Check out the "aquatic ape hypothesis". It is plausible that humanoids evolve with water being an essential part of their lives and still live on land. In this case, something like electroreception might evolve given the right circumstances of course - there need to be electrical fields for starters. I hope I read your question correctly, it could be interpreted as "my humanoids live in the desert with almost no water" - in which case it is kind of obsolete but not really. Just ignore all the water bits.

Here is what I would do, but I'm no evolutionary biologist. I hope this would be plausible to enough readers:

There is this organism (say a plant) that is poisonous and produces a weak electrical field. There is another plant/fish whatever that copies that electrical field to scare off predators. Your humanoids and their ancestors love to eat that organism. Variations are countless, from the initial plant not being poisonous to the humanoids to food growing where there are natural electrical fields (different question how they might get there) and so on.

I think one should have this in a more aquatic setting. Yes, there is no reason why this wouldn't work in air, but I think your question has a bit of a "what is the most likely way" quality to it. You could imagine a completely different reason for electric fields on your planet.

Check out the "aquatic ape hypothesis". It is plausible that humanoids evolve with water being an essential part of their lives and still live on land. In this case, something like electroreception might evolve given the right circumstances of course - there need to be electrical fields for starters. I hope I read your question correctly, it could be interpreted as "my humanoids live in the desert with almost no water" - in which case it is kind of obsolete but not really. Just ignore all the water bits. Yes, some land animals on earth have that ability, but there must be a reason why we didn't evolve that sense - so I conclude that it wasn't enough stimulation/need for it. But also note that you can sometimes feel electrical fields, when all your body hair starts to spread out because your body is charged - you can feel that actually.

Here is what I would do, but I'm no evolutionary biologist. I hope this would be plausible to enough readers:

There is this organism (say a plant) that is poisonous and produces a weak electrical field. There is another plant/fish whatever that copies that electrical field to scare off predators. Your humanoids and their ancestors love to eat that organism. Variations are countless, from the initial plant not being poisonous to the humanoids to food growing where there are natural electrical fields (different question how they might get there) and so on.

I think one should have this in a more aquatic setting. Yes, there is no reason why this wouldn't work in air, but I think your question has a bit of a "what is the most likely way" quality to it. You could imagine a completely different reason for electric fields on your planet.

The problem with non-aquatic electrical fields of course is that they need to be stronger, maybe resulting in regular shock. If you go for the desert option with little water, maybe choose an environment where not getting electrocuted is essential. How to construct this planet is a different question.