Unreal Amber Fossils Show ‘Last of Us’ Zombie Fungus Terrorizing Bugs During the Cretaceous

In the video game Our last And its spin-off HBO series, people fight to survive against cordiseps, a parasite fungus Its hosts turn into zombiesThe Although the infections are in both games and shows, are wildly dramatic, These fungi are not mere science fictionThe In fact, some species were almost from the age of dinosaurs, a new study said.

An international team led by Yuhu Zhuang, a doctoral student at Paletonology at Yunnan University in China, recently found two cordicaps-covered insects inside a 99 million-year-old Amber. Fossilized fly and ants are one of the oldest fossil records in the animal-pathogenic fungus, related to the Cretaceous Period. What is more, these insects were infected with two species of fungi which was previously unknown to science, now named Palopophiocordsips And Palopophiocordsips of EronomiaThe Researchers have published their search in the journal The activities of the Royal Society b June 11.

“Overall, these two fossils are very rare, at least we have seen a few thousand amber samples and only preserved symbolic relationships between some fungi and insects,” Zhuang Stated CNN.

Amber came from northern Myanmar, which contained Suffer A violent conflict since 2017 was a result of an incentive in the research of fossil amber. The survey mentioned that the samples used by the authors used to be collected before 2017 and their knowledge was not involved in any conflict.

Zhuang and his colleagues used optical microscopes to test fossil insects, then made 3D images of micro-computed tomography using an X-ray imaging technique. It reveals the amazing aspects of insect infections.

Researchers had determined that both species of newly discovered fungus belonged to the clan OphiocordyespsIt also includes a species, commonly known as zombie-ant fungi. The name comes from the ability to control the behavior of his host. In the final phase of the infection, the fungus takes control of the brain of the insect and it looks for higher positions with sunlight and warmth – a favorable situation for seed production. If the insects die, the growth of the fungus Burst From its head and spores begin to reveal that will infect new victims.

Fossils were stored in this state of flying flying, as a result of the body P. Ironia Burst from head to head. In contrast to a common late-phase Ophiocordyesps Infection, which usually produces a fruit body with a smooth, swollen tip, P. IroniaThe body of its fruit was unexpected and textured. Ants P. JerontWas more unusual. Instead of deriving from the head of the puppa, the fungus comes out of the metaplyral gland, which produces antimicrobial emissions. It has never been seen in any known species OphiocordyespsResearchers notes. These differences have indicated that they were probably looking at the two species that were probably not seen before.

When they compare with knowing the structures of this fungus and the type of growth Ophiocordyesps The species, researchers found the clear features of connecting them to this clan, but none of them matched to any of them. They have used DNA from the modern Ophiocordyesps Philogney -making species – ‘A visual representation of the genus of evolutionary history – then assumed where the newly discovered species has been removed from their relatives.

Leads to a deep understanding of analysis Ophiocordyesps‘History, suggests that it originated during the initial critacial period and the beetles began to be infected. It was then developed to infect butterflies, insects and other insects and other insects, including ants-at the end of the Criticius. Researchers have concluded that the insect host species abundant and abundant insect host species probably drive the rapid rise of the new ophiocordsps species during Cretaceous.

The evolutionary history of the parasite fungus has been proved difficult due to lack of ancient sample of pikes together, according to London’s natural history museumAn organization contributing to research. “The strangeness we see today is interesting to see the strangeness we see today,” said Edmund Jarzamboski, a co-authorist of the museum. The discovery gives a rare glimpse of the emergence of these highly adapted fungi germs.