The non -real fossils of amber “last” zombie fungi thatouits them on insects during the Cretaceous era

In video game Another of us HBO cross series, he fights humans to stay against Cordyceps, which are parasitic fungi It turns its hosts into zombies. While infections are largely dramatic in both the game and the offer, These fungi are not just a science fiction. In fact, some species have been present since the era of dinosaurs, as a new study indicates.

An international team of researchers led by Yuhui Zhuang, a PhD student at the University of Yunnan, China, has recently found two infections with a 99 million -year -old Cordycen infection. Among the oldest fossil records of animal fungi, which dates back to the Cretaceous period. What’s more, these insects have two types of fungi unknown to science, which is now called paleoophiocordyceps gerontoformicae and paleoophiocordyceps Ironomyiae. The researchers published their results in the magazine The facts of the Royal Society B On June 11.

“In general, these fossils are very rare, at least among tens of thousands of amber samples that we saw, and only a few of the symbiotic relationship between fungi and insects kept,” Zhuang. ” He said CNN.

The amber came from North Myanmar, which he has suffer Violent conflict since 2017 due to a boom in fossil amber research. The study indicates that the samples used by the authors were purchased before 2017 and were not, as their sciences were involved in any conflict.

ZHUANG and his visual microscopic colleagues to examine fossilized insects, then built three -dimensional images for them using X -ray imaging technology called precise tomography. This is surprising aspects of insect infections.

The researchers decided that both newly discovered fungal species belong to sex OphiocordycepsAnd, which also includes a type known as zombie fungi. The name comes from its ability to control the behavior of its host. In the last stage of the infection, fungi take control of the insect’s brain and make it search for a higher location with more sunlight and warmth – conditions diseases to produce genius. Once the insect dies, fungal growth Explodes From his head and begins to release the germs that will affect new victims.

The fossil fly was preserved in this case, with the fruits from P. Ironomyiae An explosion from his head. Unlike the late typical stage Ophiocordyceps Infection, which usually produces an fruit with a soft, swollen tip, P. IronomyiaeThe body of the fruits was unjust and tight. The ant, affected by P. gerontoformicaeIt was more strange. Instead of leaving the PUPA head, fungi erupted from the prophetic gland, which produces antimicrobial secretions. This never noticed any known types OphiocordycepsResearchers note. These differences indicated that they are likely to look at two unprecedented types.

When they compared the structures and growth patterns of these well -known fungi Ophiocordyceps Types, researchers found clear features that have this sex but they were unable to match any documented type. Use the DNA from the hadith Ophiocordyceps The types needed to build Phylogeny – visual representation of the evolutionary history of sex – destiny as the newly discovered species have diverged from their relatives.

The analysis led to a deeper understanding of Ophiocordyceps“History, which indicates that it grew up during the early Cretaceous period and began to hit the beetles. Then it developed to infect butterflies, mites, and other insects-including bees and ants-at the end of the mid-Tabashin. The researchers concluded that the prosperous diversity and abundance of hosts of insects may have probably pushed a quick appearance of the new OphioCordyceps types during the Cretaceous period.

The evolutionary history of parasitic fungi has made it difficult for the lack of ancient samples, according to London Natural History MuseumOne of the institutions that contributed to the research. “It is a wonderful thing to see some of the strange world that we see today was also present at the height of the era of dinosaurs,” co -author Edmund Jarzimbovsky, a participating scientist in the museum in a statement. The discovery provides a rare overview of the emergence of very adaptive fungal pathogens.