Yes, that fungus is quite interesting. You see, it doesn't just turn infected ants into "zombies" (
an embarrassingly unscientific word used by the NYT to descrbe ant fungal infection epidemiology); it causes the ants to do something VERY SPECIFICALLY BENEFICIAL to the fungus that I noted in an article I wrote some years ago. Please note that the action of these ants dying from the fungus is
exactly opposite to what all "high order" complex life forms,
including this same species of ants 👀 when they are dying from injury, lack of food or some non-fungal disease,
DO (i.e. hide) when they are dying.
SNIPPET:
The more complex a life form becomes, the less flexible, adaptable and the more fragile it becomes. That is why I think the Darwinian approach to species interaction in the biosphere severely understates the fragility of "higher" organisms.
Just as a type of fungus can
infect the brain of an ant species to climb before it dies and thereby aid in fungal sporulation, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the symbiotic bacteria that constitute a high percentage of the human genes (
we cannot metabolize our food without them so they are an inseparable part of being a human) actually drove our evolution simply to aid in the spread of the bacteria.
No, I don't believe that for a second, but it shows that
Darwinian "🐵 logic" can be used to claim the exact opposite of what the
Darwinians claim is the "fittest"
species.
Laugh if you want, but which is a higher organism, the fungus or the ant?
Full article posted October 12, 2013, 10:38:03 pm: