Mushroom emerged from frog, even scientists surprised


You don't see this kind of thing every day.

cottage core

On a nature walk with friends, an Indian scientist discovered a surprising thing – a frog with a mushroom growing on its back.

in an interview with new York TimesRiver and wetlands expert Lohit YT said he and his hiking group of fellow scientists were simply looking for interesting animals in India's Western Ghats region last summer when they came across a fascinating frog.

“We were five people, busy discovering the species of leech and avoiding leeches,” Lohit said.

While examining a group of Rao's intermediate golden-backed frogs, which are about the size of a thumb, scientists noticed something strange: One of them had a growth on its back. Someone snapped a photo, and upon closer inspection, it appeared that there was an even smaller mushroom growing on the back of the small amphibian.

Although the scientists didn't bring the curious creature back home with them, Lohit posted close-up photos of it online. In response, amateur and professional mycologists, or those who study fungi, said it resembled the bonnet mushroom. Known collectively as Mycena, this type of mushroom lives primarily on decaying plant matter. NYT Explains – what makes the frog seen on the back of the little golden-backed frog on the pier so mysterious.

growth spurt

Although lots of fungi grow on living things – including the yeast that grows on our skin – most fungi do not form mushrooms, which are produced only when a spore meets a nutrient-rich surface and spreads its thread-like growth. The cells that grow are called mycelia. In this. Mushrooms are formed only if the mycelia get enough food.

To be fair, there are some documented cases of mushrooms growing from living beings, such as the zombie-esque and potentially medicinal Cordyceps fungus that takes over the bodies and brains of insects, controlling and then killing the host.

But in the case of this unique frog-fungus pair, both the animal and the mushroom appeared to be very much alive, which was completely unheard of until recently.

Last year, a team of researchers at the University of Copenhagen led by bonnet mushroom expert Christopher Bugge Harder discovered something similar: Mycena that grows on the living roots of trees. As Harder, who was not involved in the frog's discovery, pointed out TimesHe had bet money that the mushroom seen sitting on Nohit's photo was a Mycena – but because neither the frog nor the mushroom was recovered, it is impossible to say for sure with only one photo.

Despite the lack of physical evidence, this observation in itself is enough to intrigue scientists – and maybe prompt someone to go out and find the frog, or something like it, to sample.

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