Scientists are baffled by a mushroom-growing amphibian that was spotted in the foothills of the Kudremukha ranges in Mala, India.
Chinmay Maliye and Lohit YT went out searching for reptilian creatures last summer when they noticed something unusual and possibly unique: a fungus growing on the side of a Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog.
The area was densely populated by the golden-backed frog, but Lohit, a river and wet life specialist at the World Wildlife Fund-India, said he noticed one of them perched on a twig, with a fungus sprouting from it. thin target the length of a thumb.
Mycologists later identified the fungus as the bonnet fungus, which normally grows on rotting wood but may have taken advantage of nutrients from the frog’s moist skin.
Scientists discovered a frog sprouting a fungus from its side in what is a possibly unique phenomenon.
The scientists said they were amazed that the frog was alive, healthy and moving.
“To our knowledge, a fungus sprouting from the flank of a live frog has never been documented,” Lohit and Maliye said in the journal Reptiles and Amphibians.
They added: “The frog was not collected, so no forecast can be made.”
Mycologists believe it is a bonnet mushroom that grows from Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog.
Lohit posted photos of the frog online that instantly attracted the attention of mycologists who identified the Bonnet mushroom, also known as Mycena galericulata, which comes from the Latin word “galer” meaning “with a small hat.”
Bonnet mushrooms begin as fungal spores and grow in clusters on non-living matter, primarily rotting wood.
However, new research from the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen revealed that these small fungi have evolved to grow on the roots of living plants, suggesting that they can now survive from both living and dead matter.
“Using DNA studies, we discovered that Mycena fungi are constantly found on the roots of living host plants. “This suggests that hats are in the process of evolutionary development, from being solely decomposers of non-living plant material to being invaders of living plants, under favorable conditions,” explained Christoffer Bugge Harder, lead author of the study.
Experts believe that human intervention has caused the bonnet fungus to adapt and evolve so that it can survive off of living things rather than simply on rotting logs.
The researchers said the development of Mycenae could be partly the result of human involvement and population growth encroaching on the habitat of plants, animals and fungi.
This has created “optimal conditions” for Mycenae to adapt and cling to living things to survive.
«It is reasonable to believe that humans have played a role in this adaptation, because our monocultural plantations, for example forest stands, have provided fungi with optimal conditions to adapt. The fungi seem to have taken advantage of this opportunity,” said Bugge Harder.
«Once fungi have penetrated a living plant, they can choose three strategies. They can be harmful parasites and take the lives of their new hosts; They can lurk like vultures, waiting harmlessly for the plant to die, and be the first to feast on the “carrion”; or you can start working together,’ he added.
“Some Mycenaean species are gradually developing the ability to collaborate, although it has not yet been perfected.”
It appears that Mycenae did just that by latching onto the golden-backed frog, although experts emphasize that they would need more than a photograph to officially identify the fungus.
Sydney Glassman, a fungal ecologist at the University of California, Riverside, told The New York Times that the growth might not even be a fungus, adding that it would need genetic sampling or inspection of the gills and spore color to make an identification. .
Without further inspection, scientists cannot determine whether the fungus is pathogenic, meaning it would thrive while gradually infecting and ultimately killing its host.