Scientists are baffled by a fungus-growing amphibian spotted in the foothills of the Kudremukha Ranges in Mala, India.
Chinmay Maliye and Lohit YT went looking for reptilian creatures last summer when they noticed something unusual and possibly unique: a mushroom growing on the side of Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog.
The area was densely populated with the golden-backed frog, but Lohit, a river and wet-life specialist with the World Wildlife Fund-India, said he saw one of them perched on a twig and sprouting a thin white mushroom the size of a thumb.
Mycologists later identified the mushroom as the Bonnet mushroom, which typically grows on rotting wood but may have benefited from the nutrients found on the frog’s moist skin.
Scientists discovered a frog sprouting a mushroom on its side, which may be a unique phenomenon
Scientists said they were amazed that the frog was alive, healthy and moving.
“To our knowledge, a mushroom has never been documented sprouting from the flank of a living frog,” Lohit and Maliye wrote in the journal Reptiles and Amphibians.
They added: ‘The frog was not collected, so no prognosis is possible.’
Mycologists believe it is a bonnet mushroom that grows from the Rao’s intermediate goldenback frog
Lohit posted photos of the frog online which immediately caught 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 start as fungal spores and grow in clusters on non-living matter, mainly on rotting wood,
However, new research from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biology has found that the tiny fungi have evolved to grow in the roots of living plants, suggesting they can now survive on both living and dead matter.
‘Using DNA research, we discovered that Mycena fungi occur consistently in the roots of living plant hosts. This suggests that bonnets are in the process of an evolutionary development, from unique decomposers of non-living plant material to invaders of living plants, under favorable conditions,” explains Christoffer Bugge Harder, lead author of the study.
Experts believe that human intervention has caused the bonnet mushroom to adapt and evolve so that it can survive on living creatures rather than just on rotting tree trunks.
The researchers said Mycena’s development 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 the Mycena to adapt and cling to living things to survive.
‘It is reasonable to believe that we humans have played a role in this adaptation, because our monocultural plantations, for example forest stands, have provided optimal conditions for fungi to adapt. The fungi seem to have seized this opportunity,” says Bugge Harder.
‘Once fungi have invaded a living plant, they can choose three strategies. They can be harmful parasites that suck the life out of their new hosts; they can lie in wait like vultures, waiting harmlessly for the plant to die, and be the first to feast on the ‘bait’; or they can start working together,” he added.
‘Some Mycena species gradually develop the ability to cooperate, although this still requires fine-tuning.’
It appears the Mycena did just that when it latched onto the golden-backed frog, although experts emphasize they need more than a photo to officially identify the mushroom.
Sydney Glassman, a fungal ecologist at the University of California, Riverside, told The New York Times that the growth might not even be a mushroom, adding that they would require a genetic sample or an inspection of the gills and spore color would have to be able to make an identification. .
Without further inspection, scientists cannot determine whether the fungus is pathogenic, meaning it would thrive while gradually infecting and eventually killing its host.