Post ArBJQbzW1PCRSep2mm by glasspusher@beige.party
(DIR) More posts by glasspusher@beige.party
(DIR) Post #ArAwqlIPkdciu3A88G by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T12:10:35Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Listen. I wasn't born yesterday. I know that fungi aren't plants: they don't have chloroplasts to photosynthesize. They don't use cellulose for their cell walls like plants.But what *do* they use then? Chitin! Like a bug! This is what the exoskeletons of insects (such as ants) are made of!The implications of this are marvelous. Consider Prototaxites, the tree-size fungi of the Silurian. They stood tall using chitin. And to me? THAT says that giant ants may be more possible than we think!
(DIR) Post #ArAxBXBXPVQjDhqpEW by georgebaily@mastodon.social
2025-02-16T12:14:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird TIL! thank you! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites
(DIR) Post #ArAxOcy9DVCAvJpb60 by philbetts@mastodon.social
2025-02-16T12:16:38Z
7 likes, 5 repeats
@futurebird eternally relevant.
(DIR) Post #ArAxtpUygMbalC47m4 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T12:22:21Z
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@philbetts I'm trying to learn about sexual reproduction in mushrooms and it's harder to find a good explanation than you'd think. The first few I've read were all cell diagrams and very technical and I understand how the haploid cells combine, then just sit there for a long time for some reason, then they become diploid and a spore... Oh dear, but I don't know how one fungi meets another... how do they get in touch with each other? They don't have flowers OR tinder.
(DIR) Post #ArAyDp7nmWqxOOl7o0 by glowl@chaos.social
2025-02-16T12:25:55Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird @philbetts and then there are so many different variants on how they do it. getting ONE explanation only explains it for ONE species (or a closely related group of them)let alone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mating_in_fungi has 3 different variants and hints at there being "many exceptions"
(DIR) Post #ArAyGGtXVLlC6BFsg4 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T12:26:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@philbetts It kind of seems like they just grow into each other underground or in whatever substrate the mycelium has colonized. Many fungi can and will produce fruiting bodies (mushrooms, or the blooms on molds) without sexual reproduction. But in living things sexual reproduction is pretty powerful, and worth the effort. Only mating with adjacent fungi seems too limited... I feel like I'm not getting this at all.
(DIR) Post #ArAyIItv16vktqOxlI by JonnyT@mastodon.me.uk
2025-02-16T12:26:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @philbetts They meet in bars.
(DIR) Post #ArAyUeGNQ0Rcd1nCTY by mensrea@freeradical.zone
2025-02-16T12:28:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird like, in league with the meganeuropsis permiana?
(DIR) Post #ArAyb4dAIV9q8xW1Fg by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T12:30:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@vikxin I think most people have reject the "rolled up rug" theory... I remember reading about it a year ago... amazing stuff. https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/111201135935011558
(DIR) Post #ArAz0wOPY4QO7gwswi by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T12:34:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@eyrea It seems that higher O2 levels may have made larger arthropods more possible, but there is evidence of Arthropleura, the largest arthropod ever existing when O2 levels were similar to what we have today as well. So, it's not like it's a hard rule.
(DIR) Post #ArB3mkUDWENMueiUE4 by whknott@mastodon.social
2025-02-16T13:28:16Z
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@futurebird @philbetts I feel like fungi use the "singles bar every night" approach i.e. ubiquity. Spores are tiny enough and in enough quantity that they spread everywhere, while at the same time the actual fungi (the mycellium) is also everywhere, just under the surface of the earth, so the hot date becomes basically inevitable.
(DIR) Post #ArB47YgCbwSUNOFH0K by jawarajabbi@mastodon.online
2025-02-16T13:32:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Yay?
(DIR) Post #ArB4AqxH7VKPvPnmwC by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T13:32:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jawarajabbi YAY!!
(DIR) Post #ArB4LlPK5PQnuA7jVY by pewnack@aus.social
2025-02-16T13:34:32Z
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@futurebird @vikxin It's my understanding the bugs were big because the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere was much higher than it is now, as the bugs "breathe" via diffusion rather than with lungs or similar. Hence, there's a much smaller upper limit to their size today.
(DIR) Post #ArB4U98HlCmHnu9T96 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T13:36:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@pewnack @vikxin This was a factor but there is more to it than that since the largest arthropods were still living when O2 levels were similar to today's level.
(DIR) Post #ArB51BIMjzj84EcRBw by brunogirin@mastodon.me.uk
2025-02-16T13:42:03Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @philbetts mycelium aka the wood wide web? Which also links other species like trees. The Hidden Life of Trees explains some of that: https://www.peterwohllebenbooks.com/the-hidden-life-of-trees
(DIR) Post #ArB554twSHyxOZ3Lii by davep@infosec.exchange
2025-02-16T13:42:47Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird ALIENS
(DIR) Post #ArBCgKBXIDHnBszRyq by covercash@mastodon.social
2025-02-16T15:07:56Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird
(DIR) Post #ArBDdTxAcNFwZWTlpo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T15:18:40Z
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@datarama @noricenolife Kind of speaks to exoskeleton envy IMO
(DIR) Post #ArBFuvAUt1IpoD9jY8 by kamikat@social.horrorhub.club
2025-02-16T15:44:11Z
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@futurebird you had me until your last sentence. That last sentence is nightmare fuel.
(DIR) Post #ArBGhnof0hnpCDFaoy by benjohn@todon.nl
2025-02-16T15:53:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird are artists impressions of these tree sized mushroom available? Wow.
(DIR) Post #ArBJQbzW1PCRSep2mm by glasspusher@beige.party
2025-02-16T16:23:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird as much fun as this sounds they’d probably need to have a vascular system to go bigwhoops, did I just give myself an assignment?
(DIR) Post #ArBP4ULsLM5n7e7CF6 by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-02-16T17:26:50Z
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@futurebird 1/2Prototaxites had cylindrical layers, like a tree. (I'm aware of the rolled-up spiral interpretations. Provisionally, I think them less likely, but for the sake of this discussion let's set them aside.)So the chitin of Prototaxites was not merely an exoskeleton; it provided internal support as well.Traditionally, an ant's chitin is assumed to be purely exoskeletal. But that's not entirely true; much of an ant's digestive system is also coated with chitin.
(DIR) Post #ArBRhTMe9HvJGHBzs0 by quality@urbanists.social
2025-02-16T17:56:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird If there were giant ants, say, the size of a house rat, or a kangaroo, or an elephant, then what?
(DIR) Post #ArBauHRag7zrdxgewK by blabaere@mastodon.social
2025-02-16T19:39:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird No, no and no. THAT says that room-size mushroom omelet are more possible than we hoped for.It would likely require some industrial garlic peeling capacity though.
(DIR) Post #ArBuU2s8ESF80HrwXo by sendpaws@mitra.pawslut.party
2025-02-16T23:18:50.088386Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@philbetts @futurebird
(DIR) Post #ArBzPStyWh9p3YMnOS by catmanmancat@poa.st
2025-02-17T00:14:03.949561Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@philbetts @futurebird They're Aliens. I don't know how people don't get that still.
(DIR) Post #ArC2zDcJ8HRLwEqKC8 by Basketball_Jesus@nicecrew.digital
2025-02-17T00:54:08.666873Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
A heroic dose or two will clarify that for most.
(DIR) Post #ArCCxXWp87dMeh7G1A by catmanmancat@poa.st
2025-02-17T02:45:53.317921Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@Basketball_Jesus @philbetts @futurebird No chance. In my teens and early twenties I was hippie garbage. I already talked to the machine elves, the spinning triangles, the heart of the universe, the hatman. I'M GOOD ON THE SUPERNATURAL STUFF.
(DIR) Post #ArDL0iPc7AY24RjFIW by MarkAtMicrochip@mastodon.social
2025-02-17T15:50:28Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @philbetts I live with two fungal geneticists. AMA (and I will ask them! I know nothing.)