A grass "spikelet" with fungus growing on it preserved in amber. (George Poinar)
This week's CBC Quirks & Quarks has a story about a grass "spikelet" encased in 100 million year old amber. The amber found in Myanmar shows the top of the "spikelet" covered in a fungus known as ergot. Due to their nature, fungi are very sparse in the fossil record. Because the ergot fungus of today is associated with the hallucinogen, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), Dr. George Poinar, a paleobiologist from Oregon State University, wondered if ingesting the ergot of yesteryear had any effect on dinosaurs of the mid Cretaceous period.
Ergot provided the precursor to LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). And people who eat ergot-contaminated rye (or other ergot-tainted grains) develop powerful muscle spasms and hallucinations. The phrase "St. Anthony's Fire" refers to both ergotism and the horrible burning feeling that ergot triggers by constricting blood vessels.
Now, it turns out that ergot has plagued grass-eaters since dinosaurs stomped the Earth. The hunk of amber from Myanmar encases an exquisitely preserved ergot fungus, perched atop a grass spikelet that grew about 100 million years ago, researchers report in the 2015 issue of the journal Palaeodiversity. The amber was excavated in a mine and collected by Joerg Wunderlich, a German paleontologist.
"This establishes for sure that grasses were in the Old World 100 million years ago," said lead study author George Poinar Jr., a zoology professor at Oregon State University.
