Did dinosaurs hallucinate? Based on the new study by a group of researchers from Oregon State University (OSU), the USDA Agricultural Research Service and Germany suggested that a hallucinogenic fungus from a 100-million-year-old grass sample that was preserved in amber might have been eaten by grass-eating dinosaurs and animals.
According to the research published online in the journal, Palaeodiversity, the 100-million-year-old grass sample was topped by a fungus comparable to ergot, a precursor to psychedelic compound LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). Earth Sky revealed the analysis showed it might had cause some hallucinations to grass-eating animals including dinosaurs.
The well-preserved fossil that suggested dinosaurs might have hallucinated was discovered in 2001 in an amber mine in Myanmar, Discovery News reported. The amber, which begins as a tree sap that can flow around small plant and animal forms and permanently preserve and fossilizes into a semi-precious stone, was collected by German paleontologist Joerg Wunderlich.
The fungus in the grass specimen, which possibly made dinosaurs and other grass-eating animals hallucinate, is now extinct. According to Phys.org, the dark fungus was named Palaeoclaviceps parasiticus, which is very similar to the fungus Claviceps, commonly known as ergot.
Ergot is the active ingredient in the drug LSD, which in animals trigger hallucinations, delirium, convulsions and the staggers, The Daily Mirror cited.
Over 1,000 compounds have been derived from ergot, Tech Times revealed. Some of them were being used as valuable drugs. However, it was also link to unwanted events like the death of thousands of people in the Middle Ages and in the Salem witch trials. It has been used as medicine to speed up labor or induce abortion and provided the illicit recreational drug, LSD.
"It seems ergot has been involved with animals and humans almost forever," lead study author and OSU zoology professor Dr. George Poinar said. "There's no doubt in my mind that it would have been eaten by sauropod dinosaurs, although we can't know what exact effect it had on them."
The fossil suggested that grasses existed 100 million years ago. The era of the middle Cretaceous Period, which was dominated by dinosaurs and conifers and the time when the earliest grasses and flowering plants were starting to evolve.
Poinar, the lead author of the study that hinted dinosaurs and other grass-eating animals might have hallucinated by eating the fungus-tipped grasses, said the research is an important discovery. He added that it helps experts understand the timeline of grass development and forms the basis of the human food supply in crops.
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