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These aren't necessarily related to today's Ophiocordyceps fungus. Fungi that take control of arthropods and cause them to climb to disperse spores have conver

These aren't necessarily related to today's Ophiocordyceps fungus. Fungi that take control of arthropods and cause them to climb to disperse spores have convergently evolved more than once, including Arthrophaga myriapodina, which affects millipedes, and is in a different Division (the level above Class) from Ophiocordyceps. Convergent evolution is more common than you might think. Trees, for example, have separately evolved at least 100 times.

n_kr 1y ago
> Trees, for example, have separately evolved at least 100 times. Can you explain more? Sounds interesting
- jgilias 1y ago
  Not OP, but: https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2021/05/02/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-tree/ https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2021/05/02/theres-no-such-th...
  - pfdietz 1y ago
    Thank you for link. As an aside there: the blog post briefly talks about birds. It turns out that membrane wings are much easier to evolve than feathered wings. There have been lots of membrane winged creatures (including "birds" with membrane wings in the Jurassic) but not nearly as many appearances of feathered wings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxA38gH8Gj4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxA38gH8Gj4
- andrewflnr 1y ago
  Trees are barely a firm category of plant at all. It's basically just tall plants with woody stems. Plants can gain and lose woody stems without too much trouble (relatively speaking, over evolutionary time). So any time a plant species currently growing soft stems can benefit from being really tall, they have a good chance of evolving into "trees".
  - kjkjadksj 1y ago
    I’ve seen rather large cactus turn the base of their stems woody and bark clad.
- lupusreal 1y ago
  One example is oak trees being more closely related to tulips than to pine trees. (Tulips and oak trees are both angiosperms, flowering plants, and share a common angiosperm ancestor. Pine trees on the other hand are gymnosperms.)
dclowd9901 1y ago
I recently visited the national history museum and finally got a sense of the _weirdness_ of prehistoric trees. No bark, a green trunk (utilizing photosynthesis), tall like a palm tree. I'd love to see something like that now.
- kzrdude 1y ago
  Well, bamboo comes to mind as a really weird tree. It's not a tree, but it's the size of one..
- climb_stealth 1y ago
  That sounds awesome! The oddest trees I have come across had big thorns like roses all over the trunk. Kind of hard to see because the trunk is so big, but you'd very quickly notice leaning against it. That was in a botanical garden in Australia. No idea what they were or how common they are. Blew my mind.
  - galangalalgol 1y ago
    Ceiba speciosa maybe? That is a weird tree for sure. I grew up where there were wild thorny honeylocust trees. The trunks are spotted with dense clusters of branching thorns, some of which are 8" long and stiff enough to puncture tractor tires. To paraphrase family guy, nature is scary.
    - dotancohen 1y ago
      Yeah, we've got these in Beersheba (south of Israel). The only tree my ten year old won't climb. They've also got really interesting cotton-like fruits, though I'm not brave enough to taste them.
    - dylan604 1y ago
      Sounds like the nightmare tree I had to deal with as well. I never did find out what it was. Does the honeylocust produce a bunch of red berries? My dad used to get mad at me as a teen when I’d be lazy and not pick up the fallen limbs from this tree and puncture the tractor tires. It was to the sole reason I became very proficient at using the tire repair kit.
pabs3 1y ago
My favourite tree evolution thing is the forests in the Galapagos being evolved from dandelion seeds blown in on the wind from South America.
- BitwiseFool 1y ago
  Fascinating. Do you have a link to that, or the name of that species?
  - h1c 1y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalesia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalesia
  - pabs3 1y ago
    I heard about it on the David Attenborough's Galapagos series: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/david-attenborough-s-galapagos https://iview.abc.net.au/show/david-attenborough-s-galapagos Here is a YouTube playlist, I think it was episode 3, Evolution: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3iXsS5tZSZG4gcYrblBdJqWuJoT9GaDJ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3iXsS5tZSZG4gcYrblBd... Also see the wiki page mentioned in the sibling comment.
mystified5016 1y ago
Mullberry plants are weird. They're happy to exist as a small shrub or a 60ft tree, depending on how they're cultivated. One of the largest trees I've ever personally seen was a mullberry on some long-abandoned land adjoining mine. But they're also a bush?

n_kr 1y ago

> Trees, for example, have separately evolved at least 100 times. Can you explain more? Sounds interesting

jgilias 1y ago
Not OP, but: https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2021/05/02/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-tree/ https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2021/05/02/theres-no-such-th...
- pfdietz 1y ago
  Thank you for link. As an aside there: the blog post briefly talks about birds. It turns out that membrane wings are much easier to evolve than feathered wings. There have been lots of membrane winged creatures (including "birds" with membrane wings in the Jurassic) but not nearly as many appearances of feathered wings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxA38gH8Gj4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxA38gH8Gj4
andrewflnr 1y ago
Trees are barely a firm category of plant at all. It's basically just tall plants with woody stems. Plants can gain and lose woody stems without too much trouble (relatively speaking, over evolutionary time). So any time a plant species currently growing soft stems can benefit from being really tall, they have a good chance of evolving into "trees".
- kjkjadksj 1y ago
  I’ve seen rather large cactus turn the base of their stems woody and bark clad.
lupusreal 1y ago
One example is oak trees being more closely related to tulips than to pine trees. (Tulips and oak trees are both angiosperms, flowering plants, and share a common angiosperm ancestor. Pine trees on the other hand are gymnosperms.)

dclowd9901 1y ago

I recently visited the national history museum and finally got a sense of the _weirdness_ of prehistoric trees. No bark, a green trunk (utilizing photosynthesis), tall like a palm tree. I'd love to see something like that now.

kzrdude 1y ago
Well, bamboo comes to mind as a really weird tree. It's not a tree, but it's the size of one..
climb_stealth 1y ago
That sounds awesome! The oddest trees I have come across had big thorns like roses all over the trunk. Kind of hard to see because the trunk is so big, but you'd very quickly notice leaning against it. That was in a botanical garden in Australia. No idea what they were or how common they are. Blew my mind.
- galangalalgol 1y ago
  Ceiba speciosa maybe? That is a weird tree for sure. I grew up where there were wild thorny honeylocust trees. The trunks are spotted with dense clusters of branching thorns, some of which are 8" long and stiff enough to puncture tractor tires. To paraphrase family guy, nature is scary.
  - dotancohen 1y ago
    Yeah, we've got these in Beersheba (south of Israel). The only tree my ten year old won't climb. They've also got really interesting cotton-like fruits, though I'm not brave enough to taste them.
  - dylan604 1y ago
    Sounds like the nightmare tree I had to deal with as well. I never did find out what it was. Does the honeylocust produce a bunch of red berries? My dad used to get mad at me as a teen when I’d be lazy and not pick up the fallen limbs from this tree and puncture the tractor tires. It was to the sole reason I became very proficient at using the tire repair kit.

pabs3 1y ago

My favourite tree evolution thing is the forests in the Galapagos being evolved from dandelion seeds blown in on the wind from South America.

BitwiseFool 1y ago
Fascinating. Do you have a link to that, or the name of that species?
- h1c 1y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalesia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalesia
- pabs3 1y ago
  I heard about it on the David Attenborough's Galapagos series: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/david-attenborough-s-galapagos https://iview.abc.net.au/show/david-attenborough-s-galapagos Here is a YouTube playlist, I think it was episode 3, Evolution: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3iXsS5tZSZG4gcYrblBdJqWuJoT9GaDJ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3iXsS5tZSZG4gcYrblBd... Also see the wiki page mentioned in the sibling comment.

mystified5016 1y ago

Mullberry plants are weird. They're happy to exist as a small shrub or a 60ft tree, depending on how they're cultivated. One of the largest trees I've ever personally seen was a mullberry on some long-abandoned land adjoining mine. But they're also a bush?