When you purchase through link on our internet site , we may realize an affiliate charge . Here ’s how it run .

A newly discovered mushroom species " lives in the pelting forest , under a tree diagram , " and researcher say it ’s nearly as foreign as its SpongeBob SquarePants namesake .

influence like a ocean sponge , the brilliant Orange River ( and sometimes purple ) mushroom-shaped cloud , Spongiforma squarepantsii , was discovered in the forests of Sarawak , Malaysia , on the island of Borneo in 2010 , and just describe in May in the daybook Mycologia .

SpongeBob fungus

The new mushroom, calledSpongiforma squarepantsii, was discovered in the forests of Borneo.

The fungus has a particular odor , smelling " vaguely fruity or strongly musty , " according to Dennis Desjardin of San Francisco State University . [ Image of funky mushroom ]

Desjardin and his colleagues attend at the sponge under a high - powered read negatron microscope . They found the spore - produce area of the fungus bet like a seafloor carpeted in tube sponges , without the cap and stem found in supermarket varieties . ( Fungi likemushroomsand toadstoolsreproduce with lilliputian spore , which for mushrooms tend to reside in the cap . )

" It ’s just like a sponge with these gravid empty holes , " Desjardin said . " When it ’s wet and moist and refreshed , you could extort water out of it and it will spring back to its original sizing . Most mushrooms do n’t do that . "

Here, a scanning electron microscope image of the spores from the newly discovered SpongeBob mushroom.

Here, a scanning electron microscope image of the spores from the newly discovered SpongeBob mushroom.

The cap and stem pattern is an elegant evolutionary result to a fungous problem . The stem lifts a fungus ' reproductive spores off the solid ground so that they can be dispersed more easily by wind and passing animals , while the cap protect the spore from drying out in their lofty but exposed lieu .

In its humid home , S. squarepantsiihas acquire a dissimilar glide path to keeping its spores stiff . " It ’s become gelatinous or cartilaginous , " Desjardin say . " Its adaptation is to animate very quickly if it dries out , by absorbing very small amount of moisture from the air . "

Their closelipped examination along with transmissible analyses of the mushroom-shaped cloud revealed that it was a dissimilar species from the other phallus of theSpongiformagenus . The other species is notice in central Thailand , and take issue in colour and odor .

A rendering of Prototaxites as it may have looked during the early Devonian Period, approximately 400 million years

A scaly-foot snail on a black background.

The fossil Keurbos susanae - or Sue - in the rock.

An orange sea pig in gloved hands.

An artist�s reconstruction of Mosura fentoni swimming in the primordial seas.

Photo shows an egg hatching out of a �genital pore� in a snail�s neck.

A satellite image of a large hurricane over the Southeastern United States

A satellite photo of a giant iceberg next to an island with hundreds of smaller icebergs surrounding the pair

A photo of Lake Chala

A blue house surrounded by flood water in North Beach, Maryland.

a large ocean wave

Sunrise above Michigan�s Lake of the Clouds. We see a ridge of basalt in the foreground.

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

An illustration of a hand that transforms into a strand of DNA