My girl Janna posted this over on Facebook today with the comment “Its Starting!” I think she may be right. The zombie apocalypse may well be upon us.
And it starts with zombie ants in the Brazilian jungle.
The Guardian says it better than I could. It’s creepy as all get out.
On a recent field trip to the region, scientists discovered four new species of fungus that infect carpenter ants, take over their bodies and eventually kill them in a place that is just right for the organism to grow inside them.
The fungus can destroy entire colonies and leave behind gruseome ant graveyards, where twisted, dark corpses rest with their mandibles locked around leaf veins, a final act that secures the creature’s host in position before it releases spores to infect others.
So this fungus (of which there are now 4-10 distinct species around the world apparently) grows out of the ant’s head like horns, takes over the ant’s brain, makes them lumber along and do its bidding and then forces them to die in a place where they can infect others?
If George Romero doesn’t do a zombie version of “Them!”, there’s no justice.
(Image via National Geographic/David Hughes)
