An ant that is eaten from the inside out by a deadly zombie fungus is the winner of a category in a contest focused on “the wonder of nature.”
The BMC Ecology and Evolution competition invited anyone affiliated with a research institution to enter one of the following four categories: ‘Research in action’, ‘Protecting our planet’, ‘Plants and fungi’ and ‘Paleoecology’.
João Araújo, from the New York Botanical Garden, submitted the winning photo for the ‘Plants and Fungi’ category, which captured cordyceps sprouting from the ant’s head.
The detailed image comes just months after the world was shocked by HBO’s hit show ‘The Last of Us,’ with a plot about cordyceps evolving to infect humans.
João Araújo of the New York Botanical Garden submitted the winning photo for the ‘Plants and Fungi’ category, which captured cordyceps sprouting from the ant’s head.
The overall winner was an image showing bright orange fruiting bodies growing on dead wood in Australian rainforest taken by Cornelia Sattler of Macquarie University, Australia.
Researchers from around the world submitted their best images to the magazine, those images capture the wonders of Earth and nature.
The photographs have also been used to understand nature and share a glimpse into “long-lost worlds,” the publication said.
Araújo’s photo didn’t win overall, but it reminds people of HBO’s hit series ‘The Last of Us.’
The Last of Us tells the story of an apocalyptic world where cordyceps, the mind-controlling fungus, jumps from ants to humans due to climate change.
DailyMail.com spoke to Araújo in February about the fungus, which he said probably infected the first ant 45 million years ago.
Araújo went on to explain that around 35 ophiocordyceps fungi are known to turn insects into zombies, found in the US, Brazil, Japan and parts of Africa.
And now one of his images of the fungus eating an insect has won a photo contest.
The overall winner was an image showing bright orange fruiting bodies growing on dead wood in the Australian rainforest.
Victor Huertas, a postdoctoral research associate at James Cook University’s Hoey Reef Ecology Laboratory in Australia, captured the winning image for the “Research in Action” category.
The winning photo, however, is a stunning display of brightly colored fungi littering a log in the Australian rainforest, first identified in Madagascar, but now it is found all over the world.
Previous research reported that invasive species, such as the European rabbit, root rot fungus and wild boars, threaten 82 per cent of Australia’s endangered species.
As a result, Australia has particularly strict rules on bringing plants, animals and organic matter into the country.
Sattler said: “Despite its innocent and beautiful appearance, the orange pore fungus is an invasive species displacing other fungi and is spreading throughout the Australian rainforest.”
“It is important to closely monitor this fungus, whose spores are often carried by humans, to safeguard Australia’s biodiversity.”
Arne Traulsen, a senior member of the editorial board, recommended the entry, saying, “Cornelia Sattler’s image gives us a glimpse into the world of fungi, organisms that are fascinating and yet underappreciated and understudied.”
Víctor Huertas, a postdoctoral research associate at James Cook University’s Hoey Reef Ecology Laboratory in Australia, captured the winning image for the “Research in Action” category.
The winner of ‘Protecting our planet’ went to Roberto García-Roa, evolutionary biologist. The picture shows a sustainable beekeeping project launched by the Chimpanzee Conservation Center in Guinea.
And the final category, ‘Paleoecology’, was won for a stunning photo showing a pair of hadrosauroid dinosaur eggs and embryos from the Late Cretaceous red beds of China, dating to approximately 72 to 66 million years ago.
The photo beautifully captures a moment as the team deploys a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) to Diamond Reef within the Coral Sea Marine Park. This advanced ROV, equipped with multiple photo and video cameras, serves as a vital tool enabling surveys at depths beyond the reach of divers.
The winner of ‘Protecting our planet’ went to Roberto García-Roa, an evolutionary biologist and conservation photographer affiliated with Lund University in Sweden.
The picture shows a sustainable beekeeping project launched by the Chimpanzee Conservation Center in Guinea.
Editorial Board Senior Member Josef Settele said: “This photo shows how very different aspects of wildlife conservation can be combined in a win-win situation that helps protect our planet and empower local communities. at the same time”.
And the final category, ‘Paleoecology’, was won for a stunning photo showing a pair of hadrosauroid dinosaur eggs and embryos from the Late Cretaceous red beds of China, dating to approximately 72 to 66 million years ago.
Jordan Mallon sent the image from the Canadian Museum of Nature.
He said: “The relatively small size of the eggs and the unspecialized nature of the dinosaur embryos inside suggest that early hadrosaurs laid small eggs and hatched altricial young.”
The most derived hadrosaurs eventually laid eggs nearly four times as large in volume and hatched correspondingly larger young.
“This digital image shows an example of a ‘primitive’ hadrosaur developing within the safety of its small egg crafted by Wenyu Ren.”
