Fungal experts proposed that the mushroom might belong to the genus Mycena.(Image credit: Lohit Y T)ShareShare by:
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In an odd and unprecedented instance, a living frog was discovered in India displaying a mushroom developing out of its exterior, leaving researchers mystified.
The frog — determined to be Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog (Hylarana intermedia) — was seen nestled among 40 other members of the same species, resting on a stem featuring a pale stem and grayish top growing from its left side.
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After the team displayed pictures of the frog, fungal biologists proposed the mushroom could originate from the Mycena genus. Lohit and his fellow author Chinmay C Maliye chronicled their finding in a fresh report, distributed Jan. 28 in the journal Reptiles and Amphibians.
The group opted not to gather the frog, and it remains unknown whether the fungus emerged from within the frog’s form or over the skin’s surface. Several fungal experts surmise the amphibian acquired the fungus subsequent to a disease or injury — producing a scarred space that the fungus could attach itself to.
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(Image credit: Lohit Y T)
(Image credit: Lohit Y T)
(Image credit: Lohit Y T)
“My supposition is that this is merely a skin-deep infection of Mycena; such occurrences can last for an extended duration, [akin to] the majority of fungal skin conditions affecting people,” Christoffer Bugge Harder, a scholar in the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biology, who held no part in the investigation, remarked to Forbes regarding the fresh revelation.
Per the study, the fungus gave off no indications of harming the frog, which also lacked any evident wounds.
This is not the initial instance of amphibians contacting fungi. Prior investigations have demonstrated that amphibians are prone to a pathogenic fungus recognized as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which induces the deadly cutaneous ailment chytridiomycosis. This ailment bears accountability for extensive die-offs of amphibians globally. Consequently, scientists contemplate if this recent discovery of fungus might pose a source of apprehension.
Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frogs are roughly the span of an inch and are indigenous to the Western Ghats, a chain of mountains stretching alongside India’s western boundary.
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Species within the genus Mycena are, meanwhile, routinely dubbed bonnet mushrooms. The majority of these species flourish using nourishment derived from dead or decaying organic substances and commonly appear clustered on deteriorated wood.
Mushrooms sprout in nutritionally dense locations originating from fungal spores. The spores propagate into slender, branching fibers, and mushrooms subsequently develop assuming nutrients are accessible. While most Mycena species populate lifeless materials, an investigation publicized in 2023 conveyed the development of a Mycena species upon thriving plants.
Harder, who functioned as the primary scribe of the 2023 study, conveyed that its findings imply these mushrooms undergo a process of evolutionary progress and may function as infiltrators of living vegetation under conducive conditions, although living frogs decidedly fall outside ordinary terrain.
Elise PooreSocial Links NavigationEditorial assistant
Elise pursued marine biology at the University of Portsmouth situated in the U.K. She formerly functioned as a freelance reporter emphasizing the aquatic sphere.
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