Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Human Cadaver Fungi Identified

Link: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/05/22/corpsefungi_hum.html?category=human&guid=20060522104802

Summary: This article is about fungi feeding off of two bodies. These bodies were found in two very different environments. One was lying on a concrete floor with yellow and white fungi. The other was a skeleton in clothes still hanging from a tree in a forest. And the yellow and white fungus was also growing on this corpses too. A scientist explained that the white and yellow coloration is associated with the sexual stages for Eurotium fungi.

Fungi Article Questions:

1) What type of lifestyle does the fungus in the article have? (Is it saprophytic, autotrophic, or parasitic?) What information lead you to this conclusion? It's saprophytic beacause it feeds off a dead material and it feeds off a dead corpses.
2) What benefits or problems can you foresee with this particular fungus? The smelling and rotting smell.....
3) List three things you learned from this article in your own words. 1. 2 bodies were found decomposing in two very different environments. 2. A yellow and white fungus was found on both corpses. 3. The fungus is called push up daisies.
4) Infer what potential impact this fungus will have on the environment it grows in. human corpses

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