Dinosaurs may have hallucinated after eating psychedelic fungus, researchers say.
Scientists studying an amber fossil that included grass that grew 100 million years ago found ergot fungus, a parasite known for causing
muscle spasms and hallucinations, LiveScience reported.
"It indicates that psychedelic compounds were present back in the Cretaceous," study author George Poinar Jr. told LiveScience. "What effect it had on animals is difficult to tell, but my feeling is dinosaurs definitely fed on this grass."
The amber fossil, the oldest grass fossil found, came from a mine in Myanmar.
Ergot is used to make LSD.
“This is an important discovery that helps us understand the timeline of grass development, which now forms the basis of the human food supply in such crops as corn, rice or wheat. But it also shows this parasitic fungus may have been around almost as long as the grasses themselves, as both a toxin and natural hallucinogen,"
Poinar said in a news release from Oregon State University, where he is a faculty member.
Ergot has been used in more than 1,000 compounds, the statement said.
Twitter users shared mixed reactions.
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