Intelligent fungus!

Was just reading this article on a parasitic fungus that freaked me out a bit!

neurophilosophy.wordpress.com...

Surely it can`t be possible for a fungus to alter the behaviour of a living thing to improve its reproduction.

It took over the ants brain and made it climb up high. It then kills the host, the fruiting bodies grow from its head, then explode, releasing the spores.

God, i hope it never evolves to attack humans!

yeah, cordyceps! its pretty awesome stuff, and doesn't really seem unlikely that something could evolve to do this to mammals... theres a parasite that is similar that attacks grasshoppers and after taking control of its brain, makes the grasshopper commit suicide by drowning...

EDIT: ha just finished the article after responding and they cover the gordian worm.

[edit on 17-8-2008 by kidney thief]

No reason to assume intelligence. Probably just adaptation at its best. A variety of fungus just happened to have this effect on an ant, and this gave it a competitive advantage. A few generations later and it’s prospering. Definitely creepy though.

That is truly bizarre...

I wonder what the human interaction would be?

Weaponize the fungus?

I saw a documentory about this and it is very disturbing. I was so horrified by it that the horrors pop back into my mind every so often. It is a Hollocost for those poor ants. I can just hope they are so out of thier little minds they don't know whats happened. It was like watching a horror movie!

POOR THINGS

I've seen countless documentaries on ants but never that one. Thanks for sharing. Life never ceases to amaze me.

toxoplasma microorganism that is carried mostly by cats, can get into the human bloodstream through scratches, and take up residence in the brain.

women who are found to have high levels of toxoplasma, are prone to be more uninhibited and promiscuous.
there have also been findings that correlate incidents of schizophrenia with toxoplasma infection.

rats that have this within them, actually seek out the scent of car urine and will congregate in say, a corner where there is a certain amount of cat urine.
The theory is that the sooner the organism dies, due to the toxins it produces, effecting the brain of the host, producing this type of behavior, the sooner the toxoplasma will be consumed by other multiple organisms, thus spreading it's kind.

www.smh.com.au...

www.cdc.gov...

en.wikipedia.org...


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Yep, I've seen a bunch of them as well, but I don't remember any spores infecting the host and bursting out their heads.

Reminds me of a couple Sci-Fi movies like Alien.