I read a trio of apocalypse short story collections earlier in the year and one of the ones that stuck in my head the most was a trio of stories... "Spore", "Fr

I read a trio of apocalypse short story collections earlier in the year and one of the ones that stuck in my head the most was a trio of stories... "Spore", "Fruiting Bodies", and "Resistance" by Seanan McGuire. It centered around a molecular biologist who worked a lab that accidentally releases a modified strain of a "hardier, healthier, and easier-to-grow bread mold, that was resistant to virtually every fungicide and sterilizing agent we knew" It becomes a fungal apex predator and is capable of consuming living tissue. It was one of the most frightening apocalypse scenarios I've ever read because it seemed somewhat plausible. A hardier fungus could change ecosystems dramatically. About 300 million years ago, fungi evolved the ability to break down lignin. Before then when biomass died, it didn't rot away and slowly got turned into the coal and oil deposits that we now consume. Fallen trees stayed where they fell for thousands of years and got turned into petrified wood. Since that evolution, everything changed so much that it affected future geology. Never underestimate the ability of our fuzzy fungi cousins and how they can change the world.