In my imagined world of Halahala, silent stories have occupied prime real estate since 2005. I think of them like music without lyrics, jazz-like in the experience. The Cordyception is another riff on Halahala’s staple theme of nature, sustainability and our obsession with a certain ladder. An Attenborough documentary led me to these marvellous fungi called Cordyceps and the rest is pure Halahala. The fungi infect and take over specific insect-hosts – body and mind – commanding them to a high vantage point for dispersing spores.
These aren't necessarily related to today's Ophiocordyceps fungus. Fungi that take control of arthropods and cause them to climb to disperse spores have convergently evolved more than once, including Arthrophaga myriapodina, which affects millipedes, and is in a different Division (the level above Class) from Ophiocordyceps.
Convergent evolution is more common than you might think. Trees, for example, have separately evolved at least 100 times.
I recently visited the national history museum and finally got a sense of the _weirdness_ of prehistoric trees. No bark, a green trunk (utilizing photosynthesis), tall like a palm tree. I'd love to see something like that now.
"Cold Storage" by American screenwriter David Koepp comes to mind, a comedy splatter novel. I don't usually read such books, but this one was funny and entertaining.
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In my imagined world of Halahala, silent stories have occupied prime real estate since 2005. I think of them like music without lyrics, jazz-like in the experience. The Cordyception is another riff on Halahala’s staple theme of nature, sustainability and our obsession with a certain ladder. An Attenborough documentary led me to these marvellous fungi called Cordyceps and the rest is pure Halahala. The fungi infect and take over specific insect-hosts – body and mind – commanding them to a high vantage point for dispersing spores.
I swear I drew this before the pandemic
—Appupen
Convergent evolution is more common than you might think. Trees, for example, have separately evolved at least 100 times.
Can you explain more? Sounds interesting
(Tulips and oak trees are both angiosperms, flowering plants, and share a common angiosperm ancestor. Pine trees on the other hand are gymnosperms.)
what nation?
I suppose you are actually talking of a time preceding prehistory by a fair lot!
One of the largest trees I've ever personally seen was a mullberry on some long-abandoned land adjoining mine. But they're also a bush?
I for one welcome our new mushroom overlords.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Side_Effects