A group of international scientists claims to have successfully regrown a fungus not seen on Earth for 20 million years.
In a statement apparently designed to gladden the hearts of horror fans and B-movie lovers everywhere, one offered this observation:
“What we have found may be ancient fungal species that were there even before humankind was born,” said Fumio Inagaki, deputy director of the JAMSTEC Research and Development Center for Ocean Drilling Science.
Even better,
The JAMSTEC researchers hypothesize that land-based fungal species were buried underground but survived beneath the seafloor mainly in the form of spores.
How such fungi could survive remains a mystery. There is no ambient oxygen beneath the seabed, and temperatures there are high, at about 50 to 60 degrees.
"This is how it all ends", might be how readers respond. "Did the fungus take over scientists' brains?" could ask another. "You want fungi from Yuggoth? Because this is how you get fungi from Yuggoth," notes one commentator.
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