Credits: Social Media
People repulsed by tarantula overtaken by zombie fungus that inspired The Last of Us
Social media users were both enthralled and repulsed by a tarantula that had become infected with cordyceps, a variation of which inspired the zombie TV show The Last of Us.
The world we live in is truly terrifying, with safety concerns resulting in an uptick in American gun ownership. The natural world is just as barbaric, with creatures baring iron-tipped teeth walking about and sharks the size of busses smashing into boats.
He might be a zombie fungus, but he’s a fun guy
If you thought fungi were just adorable mushrooms to inspire Mario characters, then you’d be sorely mistaken. There are over 200 species that are fatally poisonous to humans, and that’s to say nothing of the bizarre mycelium network that stretches underground across the world.
But even with a poisonous family, there is one group of fungi that really take the fun out of their name. Cordyceps is said to contain up to 750 species, many of them innocent enough, but there are entomopathogenic fungi that are quite literally the stuff of nightmares. Each insect group has its own cordyceps strain to worry about.
Head Field Research Ketola (@ketola), who is based out of South America and Africa, is an expert in all things flora and fauna. In a recent viral TikTok, which is sitting at 1.3 million views and 150k likes, Ketola recorded a shocking discovery.
“In front of me is a tarantula that has unfortunately become infected by cordyceps,” he said as the camera zoomed in on the beast.
The corpse of the arachnid still resembled a tarantula, but the fungi’s stroma had burst through the spider’s skin and toward the sky.
Ketola explained that upon becoming infected with the fungi, the tarantula’s nervous system was swamped and overtaken. Cordyceps then forced its victim into the open air where its eventual death would release even more spores for other hapless creatures to be infected with.
More people now know about Cordyceps because of HBO’s The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. The show follows what remains of humanity as they struggle against fungus-born zombies known as Clickers.
People are of course terrified by the mushroom
Though cordyceps are relatively harmless unless you’re an invertebrate, the fear is that it could one day evolve to The Last of Us levels. Still, scientists say there is nothing to worry about (yet).
One person wrote on TikTok: “Let’s STOP TOUCHING AND GETTING CLOSE TO THE CORDYCEPS FUNGI PLEASE.”
“I mean global warming is making it warmer hence the fungus could and probably will evolve to survive hotter climates thus meaning theres a slim chance lets say it infects wild/feral animals,” another guessed.
Someone else pointed out: “You know theyre going to keep saying it cant infect humans UNTIL it infects humans then its a big whoopsie daisy.”
