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Scientists are concerned after discovering a frog with tiny mushrooms growing out of its legs.
The amphibian was discovered in the foothills of India’s Western Ghats, and researchers said it was the first time a mushroom had been found growing on the tissue of a living animal.
In a new study published in the journal Reptiles and Amphibians, researchers at the World Wildlife Fund published their findings on this species, known as the Lao intermediate goldenback frog (Hylarana intermedia).
The mushroom in question is said to be the bonnet mushroom (Mycena sp.), which usually grows on rotting wood.
“To our knowledge, there has never been a record of mushrooms growing from the flanks of a living frog,” the researchers said in their study.
Although details about the exact nature of this mushroom are still unclear, the implications of this discovery could be alarming.
Mushrooms usually do not grow because animal skins do not contain the nutrients necessary to sustain them.
However, a parasitic fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (commonly known as chytrid fungus) is a real threat to animal life and has led to declines in amphibian populations worldwide.
This comes after a study last year revealed a man contracted a severe case of “The Last of Us”-style silver leaf disease, a fungal infection that usually only affects plants. This is the most recent story about fungi to emerge in the scientific world.
The anonymous 61-year-old patient from India developed a throat disease, an example of a pathogen entering humans from the plant kingdom.
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