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Tag: barnacles

The Last of Us zombie fungus has nothing on the brain-eating, sex-changing, Sacculina barnacle.

Posted on January 23, 2023January 24, 2023 By Andrew Thaler
The Last of Us zombie fungus has nothing on the brain-eating, sex-changing, Sacculina barnacle.
Science

In the Last of Us, the most gruesome live-action adaptation of a video game about people being turned into fungus since 1993’s Super Mario Bros, a mutated species of Cordyceps destroys society by converting humans into mindless, sporulating mushroom people.

Cordyceps, a fungus that most commonly parasitizes ants, is real. It really does hijack its host’s nervous system, alter its behavior, and turn it into a spore-producing zombie. The outcome is strangely beautiful.

Though the current darling of gritty, realistic, science-based zombie fiction, Cordyceps is such a lightweight in the world of brain-breaking parasites that tech bros brew it into their adaptogenic coffee.

If you want to meet a truly unsettling zombie-making parasite, allow me to introduce you to Sacculina.

Sacculina is a genus of barnacle that parasitizes crabs. While most parasitic barnacles are perfectly happy growing on the carapace of a crab, Sacculina takes this partnership to the extreme.

Female Sacculina larvae drift through the ocean, until they encounter a crab. The larva then settles on the crab and searches for a joint in the crab’s carapace. Once it finds a gap in the arthropod’s armor, it transforms into a kentrogon, a specialized phase of the barnacle life cycle that possess a stylet–an organic syringe-like structure–which allows Sacculina to inject itself into the crab, and not much else. At this point, the hard shell attached to the crab’s carapace falls off and the barnacle continues to grown within its host.

It gets so much weirder from here.

Read More “The Last of Us zombie fungus has nothing on the brain-eating, sex-changing, Sacculina barnacle.” »

Scallops, barnacles, and oysters- oh my! Thursday Afternoon Dredging, September 6th, 2018

Posted on September 6, 2018 By David Shiffman
Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet): Follow COSEWIC, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, on twitter. ‘Scallop wars’: UK offers olive branch as French navy threatens to act. By Pippa Crerar, for the Guardian. Brexit is complicating some existing relationships between the UK and European nations, including some fishing rights issues. Don’t worry, … Read More “Scallops, barnacles, and oysters- oh my! Thursday Afternoon Dredging, September 6th, 2018” »

Ocean apps and beluga migrations: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, April 19th, 2018

Posted on April 19, 2018 By David Shiffman
Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet):  Follow marine scientist and public educator Maeva Gauthier on twitter! Want to save the ocean? There’s an app for that! By Tim Fitzgerald, for the EDF blog. Historic deal to curb shipping emissions. By Anna Hirtenstein, for Bloomberg. Spoils (long reads and deep dives): How culture guides belugas arctic odyssey. By Joshua … Read More “Ocean apps and beluga migrations: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, April 19th, 2018” »

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