Frog with mushroom 'sprouting' out of it baffles researchers. Beginning of zombies, says internet

The cause of the phenomenon and the fate of the frog is not known. (Image: X)

A mushroom “sprouting” out of a golden-backed frog in India has sparked a frenzy on social media, especially X. People are drawing parallels to “The Last of Us” after a clip featuring the frog went viral. For the unversed, “The Last of Us” is a web series based on a video game showing a post-apocalyptic world where a mass fungal infection causes its host to transform into zombie-like creatures.

Naturalists spotted the peculiar growth while observing a hoard of golden-backed frogs at a roadside pond in Karnataka, India, CNN reported. One of the amphibians had a mushroom “sprouting” out of its side and the discovery has left scientists baffled. The revelation, that has never been documented before, triggered a lot of speculation on X as well.

A wetlands specialist stumbled upon the rare phenomenon, a frog with a mysterious mushroom sprouting from its side in Western Ghats.

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As frogs globally face threats, this peculiar case adds a unique twist to our understanding of fungi adaptation and amphibian biology. pic.twitter.com/9I8MOgkWB0

— The Weather Channel India (@weatherindia) March 2, 2024

“The Last of Us? A frog in India has a mushroom sprouting out of it. Researches have never seen anything like it,” one user wrote.

Another user commented, “A frog in India has a mushroom sprouting out of it. THE BEGINNING OF THE ZOMBIES.”

So… a frog in India has a mushroom growing out him. That doesn’t remind me of anything terrifying. Nope. pic.twitter.com/WjNfBnLmf0

— teatime75 (@teatime75) February 29, 2024

ARE YOU CROAKING ME? THERES A MUSHROOM GROWING OUTTA A LIVING FROG AND I FIND OUT ON LEAP YEAR DAY https://t.co/xXreR7zoRv

— Ahsoka’s Padawan (@fishy_chick) February 29, 2024

According to a note published in the journal Reptiles and Amphibians in January, the cause of the phenomenon and the fate of the frog is not known. “When I first observed the frog with the mushroom, I was amazed and intrigued by the sight,” Lohit YT, a rivers and wetlands specialist with World Wildlife Fund-India in Bengaluru, said via email. YT was a part of the group who discovered the frog.

“My thought was to document it, as this phenomenon is something we have never heard of. We just wanted this to be a rare incident and not a dangerous phenomenon for the frog.”

According to CNN, mycologists later identified the mushroom as a type of fungi that grows on rotting wood from dead trees.

However, a fungal growth like this on an amphibian is of concern for frog species, said Karthikeyan Vasudevan, chief scientist for the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Telangana, India. He was one of the naturalists who was shocked by the finding as well.

“Sick animals in the wild have very little chance of survival. To notice a sick animal is difficult, as they die or get eaten up quickly. Therefore, something like this is interesting and should be followed up with observations and screening of frogs,” Vasudevan said in an email.

At first, Vasudevan thought that the mushroom was stuck on the frog’s skin rather than an abnormal growth. “It is indeed the case of a live mushroom on a live frog. But one of the possibilities is that there is a small piece of woody debris under the skin of the frog after it got lodged in the skin and it has sprouted a mushroom from it.”