Zombies: scientific fact.
03-04-2011, 02:19 PM
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Zombies: scientific fact.
http://www.livescience.com/13046-zom...-altering.html
New Zombie-Ant Fungi Found
by Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior WriterDate: 02 March 2011 Time: 05:01 PM ET
The world just got a little weirder: Scientists have identified four new species of brain-controlling fungi that turn ants into zombies that do the parasite's bidding before it kills them.
Identified from samples collected at two sites in Brazil's tropical rain forest, each of the four species specializes in controlling a different species of carpenter ant.
The original zombie-ant fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, was first identified in 1865, and it seems to exist around the world. [Mind-Controlling Parasites Date Back Millions of Years]
"So we knew, right off the bat, there was a range of other species within that," said study researcher David Hughes, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University. "I think it will turn out to be in the hundreds."
Once it infects an ant, the fungus uses as-yet-unidentified chemicals to control the ant's behavior, Hughes told LiveScience. It directs the ant to leave its colony (a very un-ant-like thing to do) and bite down on the underside of a leaf — the ant's soon-to-be resting place. Once it is killed by the fungus, the ant remains anchored in place, thanks to its death grip on the leaf.
Ultimately, the fungus produces a long stalk that protrudes from the ant's head, shooting spores out in the hopes of infecting other ants. Two of the four newly discovered species also sprouted smaller stalks elsewhere, including from the victim's feet and lower leg joints – the equivalent of knees.
The spores of the four species also had distinct features and germination processes.
Hughes is concerned that one of the four fungus species, O. camponoti-novogranadensis, may not be around for much longer. During their visits to Brazil, Hughes and his colleagues saw that the high-elevation site where the species was found had become markedly drier and hotter. Hughes attributed the change in conditions at the Parque Estadual de Itacolomi, which is near the World Heritage Site Ouro Preto, to global warming.
The ants can survive this shift in the local climate, but "the fungus can't," he said. "What we think we will see is the extinction event of the fungus we just managed to describe." (Hughes said fungi are essential aquatic organisms living in terrestrial environments, making them extra-sensitive to a drying climate.)
The research by Hughes and colleagues Simon Elliot and Harry Evans appears online today (March 2) in the journal PLoS ONE.
Time to start collecting weapons of mass zombie destruction....
New Zombie-Ant Fungi Found
by Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior WriterDate: 02 March 2011 Time: 05:01 PM ET
The world just got a little weirder: Scientists have identified four new species of brain-controlling fungi that turn ants into zombies that do the parasite's bidding before it kills them.
Identified from samples collected at two sites in Brazil's tropical rain forest, each of the four species specializes in controlling a different species of carpenter ant.
The original zombie-ant fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, was first identified in 1865, and it seems to exist around the world. [Mind-Controlling Parasites Date Back Millions of Years]
"So we knew, right off the bat, there was a range of other species within that," said study researcher David Hughes, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University. "I think it will turn out to be in the hundreds."
Once it infects an ant, the fungus uses as-yet-unidentified chemicals to control the ant's behavior, Hughes told LiveScience. It directs the ant to leave its colony (a very un-ant-like thing to do) and bite down on the underside of a leaf — the ant's soon-to-be resting place. Once it is killed by the fungus, the ant remains anchored in place, thanks to its death grip on the leaf.
Ultimately, the fungus produces a long stalk that protrudes from the ant's head, shooting spores out in the hopes of infecting other ants. Two of the four newly discovered species also sprouted smaller stalks elsewhere, including from the victim's feet and lower leg joints – the equivalent of knees.
The spores of the four species also had distinct features and germination processes.
Hughes is concerned that one of the four fungus species, O. camponoti-novogranadensis, may not be around for much longer. During their visits to Brazil, Hughes and his colleagues saw that the high-elevation site where the species was found had become markedly drier and hotter. Hughes attributed the change in conditions at the Parque Estadual de Itacolomi, which is near the World Heritage Site Ouro Preto, to global warming.
The ants can survive this shift in the local climate, but "the fungus can't," he said. "What we think we will see is the extinction event of the fungus we just managed to describe." (Hughes said fungi are essential aquatic organisms living in terrestrial environments, making them extra-sensitive to a drying climate.)
The research by Hughes and colleagues Simon Elliot and Harry Evans appears online today (March 2) in the journal PLoS ONE.
Time to start collecting weapons of mass zombie destruction....
03-04-2011, 11:42 PM
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I have heard of mind controlling fungus before, but never to this degree. Yikes, that's a sad and disgusting death for the ant!!!
03-05-2011, 05:38 PM
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I know all that, plus we step on and drive over them everyday... But if you watch Discovery HD, which does a good job showing life under magnification, it will alter your perception a little bit. They had a special which included fungal spores. It's incredibly amazing how complex even those are. They create pressure and shoot out like darts at something close to 20mph.
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/0...t-control-them
There are a lot of parasites that control insects minds. The last slide about Toxoplasmosis included a parasite that controls the human mind (That's the one I learned about in my Bio class).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis
There's even a parasite in Africa that is carried by a blood-sucking tsetse fly. When the fly sucks your blood, it causes trypanosomiasis, an infectious disease caused by a protozoan organism, that puts victims including humans to sleep until their death.
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/0...t-control-them
There are a lot of parasites that control insects minds. The last slide about Toxoplasmosis included a parasite that controls the human mind (That's the one I learned about in my Bio class).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis
There's even a parasite in Africa that is carried by a blood-sucking tsetse fly. When the fly sucks your blood, it causes trypanosomiasis, an infectious disease caused by a protozoan organism, that puts victims including humans to sleep until their death.
03-05-2011, 09:00 PM
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That God did some complicated things to foil the macroevolutionists or amuse Himself (or whatever the reason) does not make me weep for the bugs! 
03-07-2011, 06:22 AM
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Can hardly call it a "Zombie" plauge. It simply makes the ant leave the rest of the colony, then kills it. Not sure how this is different than any other deadly virus, other than the fact that the bug walks away first.
I don't exactly see this causing any sort of Zombie Apocalypse in the near future.
I don't exactly see this causing any sort of Zombie Apocalypse in the near future.