http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2007/08/06/poetry-in-a-cow-pie/ A blog about life, past and future. Written by DISCOVER contributing editor and columnist Carl Zimmer. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:00:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2007/08/06/poetry-in-a-cow-pie/comment-page-1/#comment-5310 coturnix Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:45:00 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2007/08/06/poetry-in-a-cow-pie/#comment-5310 How come we post about the same unusual organism on the same day? How come we post about the same unusual organism on the same day?

]]> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2007/08/06/poetry-in-a-cow-pie/comment-page-1/#comment-5309 David Winter Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:57:48 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2007/08/06/poetry-in-a-cow-pie/#comment-5309 and, like just about every story in biology, there's a parasite story there too. Since <i>Pilobolus</i> goes a progress through the guts of a cow and exits in a pile of dung and cows don't graze around such piles it has developed a kind of hydrolic rocket mechanism to launch itself from dung to grass. If that wasn't neat enough the larvae of a lungworm (can't remember which species) that also faces the problem of getting from dung to grass to cow actually invades the <i>Pilobus</i> fungi and gets a free ride. and, like just about every story in biology, there’s a parasite story there too. Since Pilobolus goes a progress through the guts of a cow and exits in a pile of dung and cows don’t graze around such piles it has developed a kind of hydrolic rocket mechanism to launch itself from dung to grass. If that wasn’t neat enough the larvae of a lungworm (can’t remember which species) that also faces the problem of getting from dung to grass to cow actually invades the Pilobus fungi and gets a free ride.

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