Dinosaurs are thought to have eaten the hallucinogenic fungi while grazing on grass. PHOTO/ WIKICOMMONS
The dinosaurs that roamed the prehistoric world may have been high on psychedelic fungi, evidence unearthed in Myanmar suggests.
The discovery was made after researchers found the fungi in a 100-million-year-old chunk of amber bought from miners in the north of the country.
Dr George Poinar, a paleo-entomologist with Oregon State University, identified the sample as ergot, which grows on rye and wheat and is used in the production of LSD.
Dinos likely swallowed the fungi as they grazed on grass.
“It could have affected [the dinosaurs’] balance and ability to move,” Dr Poinar wrote in an email to Coconuts Yangon.
Some of the more troubling effects may have included necrosis, or cell death, of the fingers, toes and even legs.
Ergot poisoning, which can lead to gangrene and convulsions as well as hallucinations, was once associated with demonic possession.
It caused a medieval plague and has even been implicated in the Salem Witch trials, with some speculating that the fungus gave rise to peculiar behaviour in some of the women.
For those who are wondering, descendants of the fungus still grow in Myanmar.
