Photo: Tom Burns, UC Berkeley
Scientists found a new species of fungus that "lives in the rain forest, under a tree" and looks just like a sea sponge, so naturally they named it after SpongeBob SquarePants:
Shaped like a sea sponge, the bright orange (and sometimes purple) mushroom, Spongiforma squarepantsii, was discovered in the forests of Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo in 2010, and just described in May in the journal Mycologia.
The fungus has a particular odor, smelling "vaguely fruity or strongly musty," according to Dennis Desjardin of San Francisco State University.
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Neat Facts About SpongeBob SquarePants
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I was wondering when it get's dry, it changes it's structure, form - shape, and it's color? Thank you,
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Seeing as my psychological attachments are aimed toward neuroscience more than children's cartoons, I would have probably named this Spongiforma Cerebra for it's resemblence to the human brain, and to stick with using Latin.
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Looks like cancer actually.
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