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Blame the Parasite *LINK*

Mind control by parasite sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but not only have scientists revealed that it is real across a range of animals - including perhaps humans - they now even have fossil evidence suggesting it has taken place for millions of years.
An unnerving variety of parasites have evolved the ability to control the brains of victims to help the parasites spread. For instance, the protozoan known as Toxoplasma gondii makes rats love cat urine so that it can spread among its feline hosts - and it may influence human culture as well, making people more prone to certain forms of neuroticism.

Another case of parasite mind control involves the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which essentially turns ants into zombies. It maneuvers the insects into biting down on the major veins of the undersides of leaves just before they die - the fungus then rapidly grows a stalk from their victims' heads, releasing spores to infect more ants.
Now scientists have discovered what might be ancient evidence of such mind-control-induced death grips - scars on a roughly 48-million-year-old leaf.

"I thought it was a very, very long shot to find such a fossil, but indeed, as luck would have it, two paleobotanists, Conrad Labandeira at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and Torsten Wappler at the Steinmann Institute in Bonn, were sitting around wondering how that particular damage type might be explained," said researcher David Hughes, a behavioral ecologist at Harvard University.

The leaf fossil came from what once were subtropical forests around a lake in Germany. The leaf bears 29 dumbbell-shaped scars centered around its veins. These differ from the kinds of snips resulting when insects drink plant sap, and match telltale scars made nowadays by the death grips of carpenter ants (Camponotus leonardi) infected with the mind-controlling fungus O. unilateralis.

"We are now realizing that half of life on Earth is parasitic -- each free-living organism has at least one parasite," Hughes said. "But very few manipulate behaviors and there is a reason for that -- it is likely very costly. The fossil now challenges us to think of what past environments acted as selective forces for such cool tricks to evolve."
Hughes, Labandeira and Wappler detailed their findings online Aug. 18 in the journal Biology Letters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/mindcontrollingparasitesdatebackmillionsofyears;_ylt=Av2nvkZyuA9lwiuMNL1mBI8V6w8F;_ylu=X3oDMTRkcjgwZ25jBGFzc2V0A2xpdmVzY2llbmNlLzIwMTAwODE3L21pbmRjb250cm9sbGluZ3BhcmFzaXRlc2RhdGViYWNrbWlsbGlvbnNvZnllYXJzBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA21pbmQtY29udHJvbA--

I'm not sure the link works so I've included it above.

Messages In This Thread

King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European
Columbus' Portuguese Helpers *LINK*
Was Tut a Melungeon? *LINK*
If Tut was European his body morphology needs work *LINK*
so interesting, thanks. *NM*
Origin of Appalachia's Melungeons *LINK*
"1/3 African genes in Europe, from prehistory..." *LINK*
Re: "1/3 African genes in Europe, from prehistory. *NM* *LINK*
anxiously awaiting your book . . . *NM*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
facetious?
My Apologies... *LINK*
Re: My Apologies...
Chakras *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . .
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . .
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . .
"Profiles in Catastrophism" *LINK*
Correction
Your Western Australoid Ancestors *NM* *LINK*
The real Wing-Men *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Blame the Parasite *LINK*
Re: Blame the Parasite *LINK*
Re: Blame the Parasite *LINK*
The Promise of an Equatorial/Equinoctial Existence *LINK*
Big Heads no evidence of superior intelligence *LINK*
HFCS = Fructose on Steroids *LINK*
Re: HFCS = Fructose on Steroids
Cattle 'cloned from dead animals' *LINK*
PfrankenFoods *LINK*
More Frankenfoods-Sucrose on Steroids *LINK*
Corn insecticide in mass bee deaths *LINK*
Re: HFCS = Fructose on Steroids *NM* *LINK*
Re: HFCS = Fructose on Steroids *NM* *LINK*
The Sunlight Vitamin *LINK*
Re: The Sunlight Vitamin *LINK*
Re: The Sunlight Vitamin *LINK*
Re: The Sunlight Vitamin *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Re: anxiously awaiting your book . . . *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
A case of history repeating... *NM* *LINK*
Re: A case of history repeating... *NM* *LINK*
Re: King Tutankhamen’s DNA is Western European *LINK*
"Was Tut European?" *LINK*


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