Scientists found that the magic behind so-called “magic mushrooms”—psilocybin, a psychedelic compound—has evolved at least twice in mushrooms, and in very different ways.
Researchers in Germany and Austria examined two different types of magic mushrooms. They showed that while both kinds make psilocybin, the biochemistry each relied on to produce the natural compound were entirely distinct. The findings suggest psilocybin may be an example of convergent evolution, in which two, unrelated forms of life nevertheless evolve to develop similar traits or features.
“Mushrooms have learned twice independently how to make the iconic magic mushroom natural product psilocybin,” the authors wrote in the paper, published last month in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
My guess: if you eat the mushrooms as an animal its basically guaranteed a predator is gonna kill you. Sorta like those trees that use chemicals to call over wasps when they sense a pest species
Fixation (being locked in a trance staring at pretty colors and shapes) could also be positive. There is a theory that it might increase the chances that spores get stuck to fur (or clothes) and be transported to a wider area.
If I could positively ID all mushrooms I found in the wild, those spores would absolutely be transported somewhere else. ;)
Ingested psilocybin takes at least a half hour to become psychoactive in the body, so I doubt it would be all that helpful in making an animal loiter to gather more spores.
Cattle or other grazing animal would be a prime candidate for loitering and then for some extended loitering. (Sorry for the shorts link, but it's for science and it's a time lapse of cattle in a field: https://youtube.com/shorts/hXPw-mxEBIY)
A side thought is that kind of movement would be perfect for spore distribution in a smaller area with similar growing conditions. It probably would increase the chance that similar strain momma and daddy spores meet. (Large dung piles also happens to be a decent medium for some mushroom strains.)
That still doesn't prove anything scientifically or even build a case, but at least you got a time lapse video of cattle in a field.
I once had APE aborts. I bought 2 grams and within 2 minutes, while I was still eating them, I began to feel it. I only ate about 1.5 grams and it broke my brain. It was not my first time with psilocybin but it was my last. I'm afraid of it now.
All that to say it does not take half an hour in all cases.
Geez! I grow and eat some weird strains, but that is kind crazy. Did you eat them fresh? (I have never had the balls to eat any cubes that were fresh picked, but I hear it can be a potent experience.)
They were dried. I estimate there were about 30 tiny mushrooms in that 2 grams. I ate about 20 of them.
I have read that an abort contains the same amount of psilocybin as a full grown mushroom. If so, I overdid it by 18 mushrooms.
I knew they would be potent but didn't think they would be that strong.
Exactly right, same deal as with chili peppers except that you won't shit yourself to death.