Dramatic zombie apocalypse stories are nothing new to us. They are a classic fictional concept portrayed in several different ways as seen in works like The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, or Zombieland. What if I told you these scenarios aren’t actually impossible in the real world? Similarly to how they are portrayed in The Last of Us, human zombies could come from the control of certain fungi.

Fungus in itself doesn’t sound like a very big threat. That’s because, as of right now, it isn’t— to us. Ants, on the other hand, are under risk of a species called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, more easily known as zombie-ant fungus (Evans 598-602). While a typical plant’s life functions are used to help it survive, fungi specialize in taking control and spreading. This is why when an unlucky ant comes into contact with the parasite’s spores, it is taken over in the brain and used to further spread the influence of the fungus.

The reason humans aren’t affected by fungi like this is because our internal temperatures are much higher than that of a cold-blooded ant, which regulates its temperature through the environment. This means that because fungi are already adapted to the temperatures of the environment, it has no trouble preying on an ant. 

But what if fungi like the ant killer had a reason to adapt to warmer temperatures? Maybe they hunted in different habitats, or perhaps the temperature of the environment was increasing…

While our common image of fungus right now might just be mold on a strawberry or a mushroom in the backyard, its limits are much more distant. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the next Rick Grimes.

Works Cited

Evans, Harry C et al. “Ophiocordyceps unilateralis: A keystone species for unraveling ecosystem functioning and biodiversity of fungi in tropical forests?.” Communicative & integrative biology vol. 4,5 (2011): 598-602. doi:10.4161/cib.4.5.16721