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Mushroom Sprouting Out of a Living Frog
- denotational 3y agoTitle should be updated: “Frog”, not “Fro”.
- wyclif 3y agoYes, for a second before it loaded, I really did think I was going to see some kind of psychedelic or 1970's retro fashion. Wasn't sure what that would be doing on HN, but there have been stranger things on the front page!
- op00to 3y agoThere is an ascetic in India who claims to have rice growing out of his hair. That’s kinda what I was thinking.
- kordlessagain 3y agoAfter Googling, it appears to be a thing and is very green.
- stevenwoo 3y agoThe guy walking around San Mateo County with exposed brain due to cancer takes the cake. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maggot-brain/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maggot-brain/
- Filligree 3y agoWarning to anyone who clicks the link: It’s real, and there are photos. Do not click the link.
- spondylosaurus 3y agoHeeding your warning, but I have to ask: how much? Like, just a little? Or cartoon throbbing cranium?
- stevenwoo 3y agoIt's difficult to believe the man was in no pain and did not seek medical care until he was involved in an automobile accident. I've hit my head a few times on cabinets and it would have sort of lobotomized this guy.
- spondylosaurus 3y agoYikes! Well, that's a vivid picture alright :P Regarding the pain, though, don't they say that your brain has no pain receptors? Granted, there's gotta be a difference between being awake for brain surgery and walking around like that, but...
- stevenwoo 3y agoTrue, but I imagine showering or bathing one's hair in that condition would be precarious proposition, one could use a bathing cap while doing rest of body but that would still leave the undamaged head parts needing a wash.
- Filligree 3y agoThe latter, except way more graphic.
- thsksbd 3y agoI was expecting some hippie with unwashed, blonde, hair with mini bellas growing off her hair. I was a bit disappointed, although I guess biologically this is weirder.
- rubyfan 3y agoIs it weirder though?
- wil421 3y agoYes, I was not disappointed. Even though I still would like to see a Mushroom in a fro, frog mushrooms raise more questions.
- moate 3y agoMushroom growing out of living skin tissue vs dead hair is absolutely weirder.
- thfuran 3y agoHair isn't dead. It's not cells at all, just extruded protein. But that's largely beside the point.
- deafpolygon 3y ago'dead hair' is a tad redundant, innit?
- not_your_mentat 3y agoI thought I was about to read a very different article.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- frfl 3y agoFungi are truly remarkable things. The book Entangled Life is quite enjoyable for anyone interesting in learning more about the world of Fungi and their importance to the world. Anyone interesting in gardening may also be interested in no-dig gardening and permaculture which help preserve the microbiology (including fungi) in the soil.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- bamboozled 3y agoI found that really repulsive for some reason, cool but repulsive.
- schiffern 3y agoNo doubt this is related to avoidance of parasites and infections, similar to trypophobia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia
- neom 3y agoI looked at the image 8/9 hours ago and I still feel physically sick. Crazy what the body can do just because of a photo... very very weird.
- Always42 3y agoyes, seeing this makes me want to eradicate that fungus from the entire planet
- neglesaks 3y ago[dead]
- swayvil 3y agoFrog not fro. I had visions of truly rank dreadlocks. In which case growing mushrooms is not much of a leap, lemme tell you.
- razodactyl 3y agoSomething something.... game about zombie fungus.
- amarant 3y agoSo, what happens if you lick the frog and eat the mushroom? Someone should try.. You know, for science!
- jsscss 3y agoThis poor guy has to turn his controller sideways now
- xhkkffbf 3y agoI've often wondered if human hair is some how a slightly different organism. But I guess it has the same DNA as the spit from our mouth so I guess not.
- asystole 3y agoHair, as in the main shaft outside of the follicle, is mostly keratin and doesn't contain any DNA at all.
- cinntaile 3y agoIt does contain DNA. https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/awards/15pnij-23-gg-04209-dnax https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/awards/15pnij-23-gg-04209-dnax
- twic 3y agoHuman hair, no. But the mixed-up hairs of this paradoxical being, very much so: https://www.taxonomyaustralia.org.au/post/what-on-earth-is-mixotricha-paradoxa-doing https://www.taxonomyaustralia.org.au/post/what-on-earth-is-m...
- krylon 3y agoThe images were less disturbing than I had expected. That poor frog, though.
- treflop 3y agoMany plants can grow in pretty any much substrate — even just water — as well. The main issue, assuming the temperature is right, that stunts plant growth just anywhere is that usually there is not enough consistent water, and then eventually the lack of nutrients once the the plant uses its reserves from a seed. The reason we use soil is because as a substrate, it holds water and nutrients just at the right amount where you don’t have to go out and water it every 5 minutes. But if you find any pocket made of any material, even a fold of your skin, threw a seed in, and kept it moist by hand, you could grow cherry tomatoes.
- frfl 3y agoTree growing in uncleaned rain gutters: https://i.ibb.co/C6XNxyb/roof-tree.webp https://i.ibb.co/C6XNxyb/roof-tree.webp
- joe_guy 3y agoFungus isn't a plant, though. Mushrooms are to fungus what an apple is to a tree (sort of). They require moisture but their nutrients come from decomposing. Now imagine what all of this means for the frog.
- kaycebasques 3y agoI wonder if mycorrizhae is extending through the frog's body? Says this type of fungus is saprotrophic. Hard to imagine anything but a parasitic relationship from the frog's perspective. But the fungus is mature enough to fruit and the frog is still living??? That is one hearty frog. I wonder if it had a mutation
- Kaijo 3y ago> I wonder if mycorrizhae is extending through the frog's body? Do you mean mycelium? Mycorrhizhae are specialized mycelial structures that interface with plant roots.
- kaycebasques 3y agoOh yes I meant mycelium, thanks. Getting my jargon mixed up...
- Modified3019 3y agoAssuming it’s not just something that got stuck on the outside, then I would imagine that the frog is immunocompromised in some way, either due to mutation or environmental exposure to something. Split gill fungus (Schizophyllum commune), is an extremely common saprotrophic (eats dead wood) fungus that is normally completely harmless to humans. However in immunocompromised individuals, it can colonize their lungs and kill them.
- rex_lupi 3y agoWow, absolutely didn't expect this news to pop out here. I am familiar with the authors.
- dmd 3y agoI bet the frog didn't expect a mushroom to pop out either
- scudsworth 3y agois that good
- offtrail 3y agoGrowing from the frog? Or the splinter in the frog, that was already covered in mycelium?
- topaz0 3y ago> The frog was not collected, so no prognosis is possible.
- _a_a_a_ 3y agoPhilosophy: are we quite sure it's the mushroom growing out of the frog? Reminds me of a joke: A policeman walks into a doctor's surgery with a pig on his head. The doctor says "errr... I think I can see the problem". The pig says "yes, I've got this thing growing on my foot".
- bubblyworld 3y agoA link to the inaturalist observation and commentary from working mycologists: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/168461910?fbclid=IwAR2ypvvY7RtAVnVr99FSyH0gkDIJhue13pR5Ejhua1SNq-8XkIptJM48vHw https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/168461910?fbclid=Iw... (tl;dr image analysis seems to suggest the images haven't been doctored, mycologists like Alan Rockefeller believe it's most likely been dislodged and stuck to the frog's skin somehow, mycena mycelium would not colonise a frog flesh substrate)
- NPC82 3y agoYeah kinda weird to leave out the iNat discussion. It's a really fun photo but the consensus of "it's a piece of dirt with the mushroom on it" seems improtant if you want to publish it...
- dmux 3y agoThanks for the link; I hadn’t heard of iNaturalist before and I enjoyed reading the discussion. This particular comment gave me a laugh: > Would you also deny that a fungus could never fruit the the toenail of a human that spent a lot of time in the Amazon Rainforest?
- bubblyworld 3y agoYeah, it's a good time =) highly recommend the app! I've learned tons about the natural world in my hometown from snapping pics while I'm walking around. The community is really friendly.
- sroussey 3y agoSomething for him to eat later.
- rvba 3y agoHow can we know it was not doctored somehow, since the frog was not collected?
- babe666 3y agoyeah that seems like a very easy thing to fake
- MichaelRo 3y agoReminded me of the Hacker News thread "A Planet of Parasites and the Problem with God" : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38897960 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38897960 Gotta book mark the article as it's an interesting take on how the world runs. From the article: "Is There Any Meaning to This Shit Show? Optimists generally feel a strong need to believe in a benevolent universe. Hey, I get it. The idea that we live in a universe that is pitiless and meaningless [...] is a bitter pill to swallow. It would be so much nicer to believe that we live in a benevolent universe, looking out for us and helping us along. But how can one believe in a benevolent universe that contains such extreme, pervasive, gratuitous violence, predation, and suffering?"
- pvaldes 3y agoInteresting but impossible to prove as there is not any histological research done and could be easily an artifact, or a fake. As the skin looks healthy around the area without almost no color or texture response ...and the mushroom is displaced from a normal up-down position, ...and the frog is alive and didn't tried to remove it... ...and that we know that this genus of fungus is saprophytic and live on dead plants. Frog skin evolved to have a complex cocktail of chemicals, totally different than dead wood cellulose so, what is this mushroom eating exactly?. my bet would be that the Mycena is growing on a wood splint in the frog body. This is the safer explanation at this moment with this data. Mycena grow often on indoor pots at the extreme of sticks when the compost is cheap. Plant owners always are alarmed and ask about it. I'm not against changing the paradigm but would require much more solid data than this.
- devaiops9001 3y ago[flagged]