Zombie inducing fungi discovered in Thailand!

[Deleted]

Pictured: Could humans be the next victim of the deadly parasite; Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani?

A parasitic fungus has the ability to take over the mind and body of an ant before leading it to its final resting place at the most opportune time, an astonishing study has revealed. The fungus, a species of Ophiocordyceps, was found living in carpenter ants in Thailand's rain forest, controlling their nervous system so they became a vessel with one purpose: helping the fungus reproduce.


Pictured: A carpenter ant, with fungus sprouting from its head. The parasitic fungus, has the ability to take over the mind and body of the ant.

As the fungus spreads through the ant's body it begins to act irregularly before it eventually dies with its jaws clamped around the vein of a leaf in a place perfect for the parasite to thrive, it was found. The fungus eventually sprouts out of the dead ant's head, allowing fungal spores to easily be picked up by other ants, and starting a whole new cycle.



Ants aren’t the only creatures that can become zombiefied. Scientists at Penn State University discovered a virus that infects caterpillar brains and forces them to infect others. The caterpillars would normally return to the ground to hide after feeding on leaves, but the baculovirus reprogrammes them to stay in the trees, melts them, then drips down among the remains to infect more of the creatures.


Sources:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...cience-brazil/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...iscovered.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...high-noon.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/ne...rasitic-fungus
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/sc...er-fungus.html

[Hunterpower]

meh. more media stuff to promote the 2012 movies/documentaries/t-shirts, etc.
find it funny that ants are taken control of though.

[Arrow91]

hmm... so where's the zombie part?

[mercutiouk]

Not be hipster but i've seen 2/3 references to this before.
There's sea sponge that effects crabs. It lands on a crab, crawls around on it till it finds a chink in the armour. Tunnels in, takes over quite a bit of the nervous system etc leaving just a bit of it poking out for the male to mate with. Once it has it's young the crab goes insanely protective of them like their it's own kids. Utterly bizzare but I shit you not.

[Deleted]

Oh fungus, you so clever!

[Shadylol]

How is some kind of parasite/virus that effects insects indicative that there's a danger to Humans being reanimated after death?

[Deleted]

hmm... so where's the zombie part?

Errr, watch the video.

[Shadylol]

Errr, watch the video.

There's nothing about undead in that video. Just some disgusting animals, and fungus

[Deleted]

Of course not you silly, I'm a billionaire currently getting some ninja training and when I come back in a few months I'll save all your asses. Zombie Fungus repellent ftw.

[Deleted]

That's not zombies.

[bloodkin]

you forgot to mention that they discovered another fungus species that cures them of the zombie fungus. it tends to live in and around ant mounds.

[semaphore]

For a moment I thought this was promotional material for the Last of Us or something.

[Deleted]

There's nothing about undead in that video. Just some disgusting animals, and fungus

I thought zombies can be other than undead, like brain-dead with just the most primitive senses or something. The popular concept is that zombies are undead, but in some of the movies they aren't necessary undead...

[glorithan]

I thought zombies can be other than undead, like brain-dead with just the most primitive senses or something. The popular concept is that zombies are undead, but in some of the movies they aren't necessary undead...

Looks like someone has been watching 'I am legend' a bit to much

[Khanjin]

Parasites bending the host animal's behaviour for own gain is not news. This has been known for a long, long time. This particular fungus might be a new discovery, but the "zombification, that isn't really zombification"-part is not new, lol.

EDIT: After further reading, not even the fungus is new.. sigh.

[Kryos]

Very old news is very old.
Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is known since 1865!

[IMG]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tUHuq5xzbww/TTuqzShCEeI/AAAAAAAACZg/xumgvsfYctk/s1600/392215547_bf0e298327.jpg[IMG]

Infracted: No meme images, please.

[Herecius]

Discovered? Implying that this fungus hasn't been studied for years and years. The only new news is that scientists picked its genome apart.

[Deleted]

Well doesnt seem to be "zombie" then as the ant doesnt move after its dead.

[Runeforged]

This is some pretty old news, there's also more than just fungi that take over ant brains.

[Xeones]

wtf? This is a well documented fungus. The game Last of Us is based on it.