710

Carl? (mander.xyz)

submitted 2 years ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 125 points 2 years ago

Oh Carl's still there. In perpetual agony.

[-] Emtity_13@lemmy.sdf.org 84 points 2 years ago

Looked it up, and I think I've had enough internet for today

[-] olutukko@lemmy.world 52 points 2 years ago

I can already guess that it's a parasite that takes control of the hosts body. truly is the worst type of parasite

[-] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 38 points 2 years ago

It also crawls into the snail's eyestalks and starts dancing in the snail's eyes

[-] olutukko@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago

parasitic stripper. it just strips its hosts control of its own body and starts dancing

[-] Rinox@feddit.it 8 points 2 years ago

Iirc is to attract birds so it can infect the bird and use it to reproduce. After the bird has eaten the parasite out of the snail's eyeballs, the snail can often regenerate and keep living as usual. This is what I recall from a YouTube video at least ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[-] LucidBoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 56 points 2 years ago

This shit creeps me out so much.

[-] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 55 points 2 years ago

Man, me and the several billion gut bacteria I coexist with don’t like this at all!

[-] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 41 points 2 years ago

Can someone explain please

[-] CEbbinghaus@lemmy.world 105 points 2 years ago

Trust me. You don't want to know. It's fucked up parasite shit. On the same level as the fungus that takes over ants.

[-] Remotedeck@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 2 years ago

Your right, I looked it up and I wish I didn't

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 15 points 2 years ago

His right or your right?

[-] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 years ago

Yes.

[-] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 18 points 2 years ago

Fungus takes over ants

[-] notabot@lemm.ee 56 points 2 years ago

That'll be Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. It invades the ant's brain and causes it to leave it's nest and go somewhere better for the fungus then wait to die as the fungus errupts from its head.

If we're talking about nightmare mind control horrors, we shouldn't forget our old friend toxiplasmosis gondii, which infects rodents, then alters their behaviour so they're not afraid of cats, in particular. This leads to the rodent getting eaten so the parasite can infect the cat, which is the only place it can reproduce, before spreading from the cat faeces back into the rodent population. It can also infect humans where there is evidence that it affects behavior too, particularly making males more careless of rules.

Sleep well.

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 years ago

That’s why momma always reminded us:

Be kind, they may harbor a latent Toxoplasma gondii infection that could subtly influence their behavior and personality.

[-] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 12 points 2 years ago

I hate you now!

[-] notabot@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago

Oh come now, there are so many more interesting parasites that mess with your brain for their own benefit; Trypanosoma which messes with your sleep before slowly killing you, Naegleria fowleri that just straight up eats your brain and a host of others that do weird and wonderful things.

Look at it this way; before you were surrounded by mind controlled ants, suicidal rodents and other such horrors without even knowing it. Now you do know about them. What's that? I'm really not helping? Ok, I'll stop.

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[-] merari42@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This is a good place to leave this link to a nice folk song about parasites that has a verse on Toxoplasma of course

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 years ago

so that's why guys who like cats are generally friendly anarchists

[-] Wutchilli@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago

And those little things might make you kinky. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1474704916659746 (One of my favorit papers because a friend of mine got them)

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 years ago

It’s a thing that exists in real life that was essentially used as the base premise (but for humans) in The Last Of Us.

[-] pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 2 years ago

image your best friend becomes a zombie...

[-] lowleveldata@programming.dev 12 points 2 years ago

Like Shaun of the Dead? That wasn't too bad

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[-] Maultasche@feddit.de 83 points 2 years ago

It's a parasite that causes snails to get to higher places and get eaten by birds where it reproduces in their digestive system.

[-] elbucho@lemmy.world 47 points 2 years ago

God damn, Nature. You scary.

[-] anyhow2503@lemmy.world 60 points 2 years ago

The snail has been taken over by parasitic flatworms that control it to seek out exposed spots and pulsate inside of their eye stalks to get eaten by a bird and enter the next stage of their life cycle, which they spend by living in the birds cloaca and spreading their eggs via feces.

[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 12 points 2 years ago

Are the birds negatively affected by the wormies?

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 2 years ago

Their eyes don’t pulse out of their heads, if that’s what you mean.

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 36 points 2 years ago

tl:dr; nightmare stuff

[-] halvar@lemm.ee 20 points 2 years ago

Guys am I the one not getting it or being insensitive toward the snails or is this just the classical "mildly alters behavior of intermediate host in order to spread to host more easily" again?