Cordyceps Turned These Ants Into Zombies

This fungus was actually manipulating ants’ movements, forcing them to do something they’d never ordinarily do, something strange, yet specific…

*****
*****

Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios

Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Amanda Ward, Steven Taylor, Kyle Brown, Stephen Patterson, Mark Foster, Karen Farrell, Trevor Long, Raphael Haase, daniel blankstein, Roberto Adrian Ramirez Flores, Jason Rostoker, Jonathan Rust, Avery Sanford, Mary Tevington, Bart & Elke van Iersel - De Jong, William Craig II, Tracey, James Dowling-Healey, Irene Wood, Derek Helling, WilCatRhClPPh33, Mark Talbott-Williams, Nomi Alchin, Eric Roberto Rodriguez, Hillary Ryde-Collins, Yu Mei, Dan Ritter, 4th_phase, Jayme Coyle, Albert Folsom, Oscar Amoros Huguet, Patrick Wells, Steven G, Dan Caffee, Stephanie Tan, Nick Ryhajlo, Sean Dennis, Ben Cooper, Robert Noah, Matt Parker, Heathe Kyle Yeakley, Jerrit Erickson, MissyElliottSmith, Stefan Weber, Merri Snaidman, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, Anthony, Philip Slingerland, John Vanek, Eric Vonk, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Daisuke Goto, Gregory Kintz, Chandler Bass, Tsee Lee, Robert Hill

Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?

References:

[rogerhinman]

In a world where ants colonize fungus for food, there's one fungus that fights back...

[kendomyers]

"None of them effect people so dont worry"
The opening line to every sci fi horror

[ninjacoughdrop]

I feel like wasps that parasitize caterpillars, spiders, etc. are a closer match to xenomorphs, but either way the comparison is fun.

[TheBullethead]

"All the ants wanted was to keep their colony clean and instead they got zombies." Pretty much the best line in all your videos! Bravo! Much better than "camerosaurus"

[scottmccrea]

One theory is the endothermy ("warmbloodedness") developed because of fungus. Of the tens of thousands of species of fungi, only about 300 infect mammals. Since the vast majority of fungi can't tolerate 98 degrees, endothermy acts as excellent anti-fungal weapon.

[jcortese]

Never thought I'd feel such sympathy for an ant.

[naidoeshacks]

I've always wondered how something so complex such as this behavior evolved.

[blaireyoung]

Wow, that fossil is amazing! A moment in time shared by animal, fungi, and plant

[CLBrierley]

I like what you did at the end when you said ' The Last of Us' - for those who don't get it, and I imagine there won't be many who don't, The Last of Us is a zombie survival game that came out in 2013, and the thing that turned people into zombies or the infected, was a mutated Cordyceps fungus like what infects ants! A sequel The Last of Us Part II that came out in 2020, and a show adaptation is being made about the first game by HBO. Both games did extremely well, and many call The Last Of Us one of the best zombie games, and even video games of all time, and that is for many reasons including the fact that it is based on a fungus that is very real. This was a great video!

[FatsCaton]

"So what do we do?"

"Bomb"...

[terramater]

It's fascinating how ants' behaviour helps them, most of the time, to avoid the spread of diseases within the colony. Our film crew managed to shoot an incredible ant colony work where they carried leaves to their nest together, but in this case, they were seeking the fungus. Zombie ants, maybe? Not in this case; they actually use the fungus as nourishment. Thanks for the video!

[kitchenmom]

Death by butt fungus was not on my list of things I wanted to learn right before bed. But now I know that we over here in Germany 50 Million Years ago had the same weather Thailand has now. I also love the Alien reference. Dying by Alien having breakfast does not sound better than dying by fungus, but a lot more bloody.

[kingjellybean]

Blake is hands down the best pbs eons host, dude just makes me laugh

[blockmasterscott]

What's amazing is that someone found ant bite marks on a fossilized leaf.

[worldsboss]

He actually made a Last of Us pun in a video about zombies. Well played.

[Dragrath]

We do actually know a bit about the mechanisms by which Ophiocordyceps fungi hijack ants and its actually quite a bit more terrifying than direct behavioral manipulation since it turns out that the fungi largely avoids interacting with the ants nervous system instead blocking the ants brains ability to signal to control its muscles and rather directly triggering its own action potential signals to supplant control. So it is much better described as puppeteering the ant. Granted it takes time for the fungus to grow to be able to achieve that effect so behavioral manipulation is probably necessary to get to the puppeteering stage.

That said we do know a bit about that too and interestingly enough it involves a molecule called psilocybin. Psilocybin or an equivalent psychedelic compound appears to be a prerequisite for direct animal parasitism by fungi i.e. there are fungi which aren't parasitic which produce psychedelics but there are no direct parasitic fungi (we are discounting opportunistic infections of the skin or orifices as the fungus isn't acting as a coordinated multicellular organism) which do not produce psychedelics.

Psychedelics themselves appear to be a much more general product of convergent evolution which interestingly enough appears to likely have arisen as a defensive weapon against insects by disorienting them as they attack the fungus or directly compete for resources(decomposing plant material).

For more on this topic I recommend reading Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

[mutantmaster]

I think the most scary part I've heard about this is that the fungi just goes for the muscles as a means of control and energy resources, so the nerves are left for last.
So the ant at some point tries to do something, and due to the infection, it can't control its body

[ikebeckman]

Since ants love stealing and eating competitors’ larvae I can definitely see the chance of contamination

[TheAmazingCowpig]

Ah, I see it's time for an Eons take on Cordyceps. Great to hear a more in-depth evolutionary take on it for once.

[pol.]

Ants sanitize each other, destroy/remove dead bodies, and kill those already infected.
Sounds a lot like the QZ zone in the last of us. Though it can be cruel, an effective strategy when there are zombies running around.