Awesome Living Creature Thing for May 31, 2009: Cordyceps

I just discovered this. And, technically it’s not an animal. So sue me.

Cordyceps is a fungus that likes nothing more than to be ingested by animals. It’s kind of like a prank. One day, while Mr. Ant is walking around, minding his own business, all of a sudden WHAM he’ll feel a force not unlike what one would feel if a live prairie dog crawled through your intestines and decided to go through your whole body, eventually tunneling through your head (or other bodily part). And then long tubular fungus shoots out of Mr. Ant, having eaten away all his innards. Technically he will be dead by this time.

And thus does the cycle of nature continue…