People tend to overlook how common "zombies" are in nature, parasitic fungi are only a fraction of the true scale of organisms that take over and modify their host's behaviour. We have parasitoid wasps, parasitic flies, strepsipterans, trematodes, nematomorphs and countless crustacean groups just doing the zombie master dance for millions of years to billions of hosts across thousands of different animal groups. It's fabulous.
As for fungi infecting humans and birds: the increased body temperature of warm blooded animals makes a *_very_* effective barrier against parasitic fungi. They can infect our feet or our hair, but not much more, unless your immune system is severely damaged for some reason.
Whats interesting is entomopathogenic fungi are amazing plant symbiotic partners. There's also studies showing the fungi, while engaged in plant symbiosis, infecting insects and drawing nutrients directly from insect to plant. My roman empire for sure ❤
There's even been horizontal gene transfer from some fungi into certain beetles so that they can digest plants more effectively! So it goes both ways for fungal adaptations for both plant and feeder.
Its so wild that ants developed such specific and dramatic measures for dealing with a cortycepts infection. It was really a full on arms race between the ants and fungus. Imagine how many colonies were completely obliterated before ants evolved their defense against it! And then how long did it take cortycepts to evolve the zombie mechanism to counter the ants defenses?! Just totally bizarre. I liked the first 5 minutes of the Last of Us, but the rest of that first episode was such a confusing mess full of annoying characters I gave up.
Ants are probably the most interesting insects. There are several different species that can actually split their own bodies on purpose causing chemicals inside to run out mix and then explode. This comes in handy as a last ditch move to save the colony from other insect invaders.
I have seen fungus on flies quite a few times, white furry stuff. The flies cling to stems. Only seen recognisable fungi fruit bodies once, they were bright orange. These were growing from buried Fox Moth caterpillars "Macrothylaci rubi" , these moths are becoming scarcer so the fungus will get scarcer. I got photos when I went on a fungus foray with the Staffordshire Fungus Group. Enjoyed your video.
Cordyceps only does that in a few species? I thought it was thousands, with the different species specializing in different kinds of insects, but it also makes sense that it makes a few go to great heights to latch on and launch spores and most of them are just killed without any behavior altering.
Some aspect missing here: the zombie fungus may have an advantage with kidnapping the brain also of solitary insects, if they climb up high and get the fungus to spread more effectively. The fungus must start somewhere, and infecting social insects might be a later development, that needs no special adaption from the standing point of the fungus.
It's a shame Americans are too scientifically illiterate to watch, understand, and enjoy this content and channel, one of the best (if not THE best) in paleontology.
I'm interested in coming up with a cordyceps fungus that can infect fire ants and also survive a temperate winter. I asked some people in a biology research lab what they thought of the idea but they tend to panic when they hear the word fungus.
You are not an ant?? Oh geez, i better go break the bad news to the queen. She really wanted to meet you. Planned a nice dinner of sugar cubes and grass hopper legs and everything... And oh no, the eggs! They are gonna be so disappointed. All I've been hearing all day from the nursery is, "chitt chitt, chitter, chii chitt chitter!!". That means, "I'm so excited about youtube Raptor-Ant!!". But you wouldn't know that, would you, mr. not-an-ant...
0:50 This is incorrect! Cordyceps is not the only genus of zombifying fungi! Please look up for instance Ophiocordyceps and Entomophthora. 9:33 Wrong again! Cordyceps sensu strictu might be very host specific, but the host range of family Ophiocordycipitaceae (only one of at least three families in which there are zombifying fungi) is everything but narrow. It not only infects arthropods, but also other ascomycete fungi belonging to genus Elaphomyces or Rhizopogon (a few yers ago the fungal genus Elaphocordyceps still belonged to genus Cordyceps. recently it was renamed to Tolypocladium).
What a fun apocalypse movie Cordyceps would be. Humans get infected by killer fungi. Although it is funny that cordyceps are used to aid respiratory function in high altitudes.
If we were to have a vote over what organism is most likely to mutate and cause a zombie apocalypse, my vote would go to rabies. The only thing holding it back right now is the long incubation period.
There is copal, which is basically modernish amber, which hasn't been as compressed by geologic forces. And you can find animals in that. So it covers the animal quickly near the source (a tree), and then falls to the ground and gets covered by mud and dirt and gets preserved.
I mean sure you get get it to that temperature, but humans are functionally so different from arthropods that it wouldn't really be likely to be successful. Even just getting oxygen would be different, because ants don't have lungs, or the same kind of blood that we do.
Does anyone else think Raptor would be a Fungi to hang out with?
He'd be the most interesting guy in the (mush)room
I wonder what he does in his spore time
He glows with amazement.
some fungi glow
@@Fede_99 Why does it matter to you? If you want to date him ask!
@@Fede_99 he possibly makes molds for stuff
2:52... that... is... that's a boss move...wow, do ants ever mean business!
People tend to overlook how common "zombies" are in nature, parasitic fungi are only a fraction of the true scale of organisms that take over and modify their host's behaviour. We have parasitoid wasps, parasitic flies, strepsipterans, trematodes, nematomorphs and countless crustacean groups just doing the zombie master dance for millions of years to billions of hosts across thousands of different animal groups. It's fabulous.
As for fungi infecting humans and birds: the increased body temperature of warm blooded animals makes a *_very_* effective barrier against parasitic fungi. They can infect our feet or our hair, but not much more, unless your immune system is severely damaged for some reason.
One of the main things that protect us from being infected by molds and fungus is our own body temperature
Thank someone. 😅
Whats interesting is entomopathogenic fungi are amazing plant symbiotic partners. There's also studies showing the fungi, while engaged in plant symbiosis, infecting insects and drawing nutrients directly from insect to plant. My roman empire for sure ❤
There's even been horizontal gene transfer from some fungi into certain beetles so that they can digest plants more effectively! So it goes both ways for fungal adaptations for both plant and feeder.
Last bit made me remember a short sci fi story by Charles Stross, where humanity get infected with a virus… that increases our altruism
Its so wild that ants developed such specific and dramatic measures for dealing with a cortycepts infection. It was really a full on arms race between the ants and fungus. Imagine how many colonies were completely obliterated before ants evolved their defense against it! And then how long did it take cortycepts to evolve the zombie mechanism to counter the ants defenses?! Just totally bizarre. I liked the first 5 minutes of the Last of Us, but the rest of that first episode was such a confusing mess full of annoying characters I gave up.
I had no idea ants will drag away & kill an infected ant, and then kill themselves just in case. Nature is brutal.
Ants are probably the most interesting insects. There are several different species that can actually split their own bodies on purpose causing chemicals inside to run out mix and then explode. This comes in handy as a last ditch move to save the colony from other insect invaders.
@@jordanslingluff287 chemical warfare in insects is wild!
I have seen fungus on flies quite a few times, white furry stuff. The flies cling to stems. Only seen recognisable fungi fruit bodies once, they were bright orange. These were growing from buried Fox Moth caterpillars "Macrothylaci rubi" , these moths are becoming scarcer so the fungus will get scarcer. I got photos when I went on a fungus foray with the Staffordshire Fungus Group. Enjoyed your video.
The white furry stuff on flies should be Entomophthora muscae or similar.
Cordyceps only does that in a few species? I thought it was thousands, with the different species specializing in different kinds of insects, but it also makes sense that it makes a few go to great heights to latch on and launch spores and most of them are just killed without any behavior altering.
Some aspect missing here: the zombie fungus may have an advantage with kidnapping the brain also of solitary insects, if they climb up high and get the fungus to spread more effectively. The fungus must start somewhere, and infecting social insects might be a later development, that needs no special adaption from the standing point of the fungus.
Wow, this is a really interesting videos. I had no idea cordyceps went back so far. YIKES.
10:18 sounds like something an ant would say...
It's a shame Americans are too scientifically illiterate to watch, understand, and enjoy this content and channel, one of the best (if not THE best) in paleontology.
Thanks!
I'm interested in coming up with a cordyceps fungus that can infect fire ants and also survive a temperate winter. I asked some people in a biology research lab what they thought of the idea but they tend to panic when they hear the word fungus.
You are not an ant?? Oh geez, i better go break the bad news to the queen. She really wanted to meet you. Planned a nice dinner of sugar cubes and grass hopper legs and everything...
And oh no, the eggs! They are gonna be so disappointed. All I've been hearing all day from the nursery is, "chitt chitt, chitter, chii chitt chitter!!". That means, "I'm so excited about youtube Raptor-Ant!!". But you wouldn't know that, would you, mr. not-an-ant...
On the way to Walmart to buy a huge terrarium glass jar, some wet wood and a sensitive temperature control system.
"I don't know if you have noticed this, but I'm not an ant."
That's exactly what an ant would say!!
10:16 Sounds like something an ant would say if it didn't want to get caught...🤔
Maybe cordyceps has actually evolved so far that instead of making humans bite each other it just learned how to make smartphones.
0:50 This is incorrect! Cordyceps is not the only genus of zombifying fungi! Please look up for instance Ophiocordyceps and Entomophthora.
9:33 Wrong again! Cordyceps sensu strictu might be very host specific, but the host range of family Ophiocordycipitaceae (only one of at least three families in which there are zombifying fungi) is everything but narrow. It not only infects arthropods, but also other ascomycete fungi belonging to genus Elaphomyces or Rhizopogon (a few yers ago the fungal genus Elaphocordyceps still belonged to genus Cordyceps. recently it was renamed to Tolypocladium).
What a fun apocalypse movie Cordyceps would be. Humans get infected by killer fungi.
Although it is funny that cordyceps are used to aid respiratory function in high altitudes.
That is the plot of The Last of Us video game/TV show that he keeps mentioning.
If we were to have a vote over what organism is most likely to mutate and cause a zombie apocalypse, my vote would go to rabies. The only thing holding it back right now is the long incubation period.
Flowers cause zombies. Good to know.
how long does it take for amber to form naturally if they form too slowly than they won't be able to trap stuff in them so solidly
There is copal, which is basically modernish amber, which hasn't been as compressed by geologic forces. And you can find animals in that. So it covers the animal quickly near the source (a tree), and then falls to the ground and gets covered by mud and dirt and gets preserved.
But isn`t that what a brain fungus would say?
This species of fungi honestly sounds like specifically bio engineered or labarotory made imo
awesome vid
Nice video raptor!
Cool video, now I can be a know-it-all when I finish watching it with my bf 😂
Hope being a know-it all went well!
If people were infected with fungal wouldn’t be fun guys to hang out with
❤
This video contains the spores of a really bad science fiction movie.
I do wonder tho if someone wanted too could they force evolution on cordyceps to handle the internal temperature of humans
I mean sure you get get it to that temperature, but humans are functionally so different from arthropods that it wouldn't really be likely to be successful. Even just getting oxygen would be different, because ants don't have lungs, or the same kind of blood that we do.
You are NOT an ant !?
rabbies