Meet The Incredible Mushroom-Frog! ( lemmy.ml )
On the 9 June 2023, at Mala, Karkala, Karnataka, India, researchers found Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog, (Hylarana intermedia) with a rather fetching, fungal companion growing out of it's side
Mycologists identified the fungi as Common Bonnet, part of the Mycena genus, a type of fungi that mostly grows on rotting wood from dead trees, however it has also been discovered to be able to thrive on living plants as well
https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/fb78448b-9787-4b3f-a9c9-e0451e61fa07.jpeg
The frog appeared to be quite healthy and was not caught, so there's no definitive answer why it was hosting a mushroom, however...
...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....
All photos by Lohit Y.T. one of the researchers who discovered the frog and co-author of the paper
