"Amber fossil links earliest grasses, dinosaurs and fungus used to produce LSD"

http://phys.org/news/201...arliest-grasses.html#jCp

@ Report ---- >

" a fungus similar to ergot "

Similar to ergot because it grew on grasses ?

Is it actualy a sort of ergot ?

How did they identify it ?

How did they analyse the chemical content ?

I'm not sure dinosaurs have the brain structures necessary for psychedelics to have any sort of profound effect on them.

~ND

I'm not sure you're speaking from any kind of scientific knowledge.

Working through a BS in neuroscience, so I've got a bit of knowledge.

Most of the effects of psychedelics are caused by changes to function in the cerebral cortex (including the PFC), as well as the structures associated with the DMN. I have no way of knowing how dinosaur brains developed, but in reptiles, while those same structures are present, they are not as complex or highly developed as in mammals (eg: the CC of a reptile doesn't generally have the gyri and sulci that our brains do).

Hallucinations/perceptual distortions might occur, but the more interesting effects probably require a higher level of information processing.

Blessings
~ND

I dig what you're saying Nathanial.Dread. Perhaps they could have tripped in different ways via different chemical pathways ? Perhaps many critters alive today can do the same ? Something we will likely never experience with our own hardware ?

But a general wtf @ this article, making out a fungus produces LSD ? Would that it was so easy !

I think it likely that dinosaur brains were more bird like than reptilian.

Most of the really interesting effects of psychedelics have to do with changes to the sense of self, or the boundary between the internal self and the perceived external environment. I'm not sure exactly what a dinosaur's self-concept was like, but I imagine that some sense of self (and the neural architecture associated with that kind of self-referential information processing) is a prerequisite for psychedelic goodness.

Bancopuma: Good point -- they were probably somewhere between reptiles and birds. Someone go feed LSD to a chicken. If it grows dreadlocks and starts a jam band, we know we're on to something.

Blessings
~ND

Now that I think about it: do birds or reptiles even have 5-HT2ARs (or some analogous structures)? Anyone got data on that?

Blessings
~ND

I was just about to post a new topic on this...
Beat me to it.

I'm most curious about them saying it used to produce LSD...

Does anyone have information on this?

I always thought LSD was produced from chemicals extracted from ergot...

Obvious nonsense. The author of the article probably knows more about writing sensational pieces than about chemistry or biology.

Here's another article on that site that is slightly related to some of the discussions in this thread: Crocodiles just wanna have fun, too.

Could an animal that big find enough to get an effect off it ? Could it eat that amount fast enough ? Maybe a compariosn weight for weight between a dinosaur and an average person and work out the dose it would need to get an effect if it was modern ergot .

Ergot doesnt make LSD . Chemist do and its not easy .

Hold on one minute... Dinosaurs were real?

Did you not learn about the psilocybinasauras at school?? WHERE did you go to school! pfft

Hold on one minute... Schools TEACH things?

I have video proof!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_0ToX4klnY


I mean, the whole LSD thing is silly (unless there was some unknown intelligent dino species that was great at chemistry ). But forgetting that, many animals naturally seek out intoxication of all sort in nature... so it is a fun idea to think about and the idea that some dinosaurs may have done this in some way is at least not as unlikely as it first may seem. I don't think we really know enough about dinosaur brains to say what would or would not effect them, and in what way, do we?

I keep visualizing this and each time it gets funnier.

In the writer's defence, ergot alkaloids have been used by Hofmann to first synthesize LSD. And there is a theory about the Eleusis mysteries that points to Ergot being one of the potential ingredients in the mysterious drink the participants had during the rituals.

I am not claiming dinosaurs were tripping on lsd, but they might have ingested it. The consequences of the ingestion we don't know, for all we know they might've avoided it because of the Ergot or looked for it for other reasons.

Ergot is generally considered to be a pretty mediocre hallucinogen. Depending on the circumstances in which the fungus grows, erogtism sometimes doesn't involve psychedelia at all, but rather, terrible gangrene. Those cases were people do 'trip,' are often associated with seizures, grossly disturbed behavior and, again, gangrene (this may be the drug of choice a dubstep raves, idk).

There's a reason there's a whole order devoted to treatment of St. Anthony's Fire.

Blessings
~ND

A list of animals that can have trips on psychedelics .

Animals that can trip on LSD ---- >

Definately dogs , cats , mice , rats , elephants and spiders .

Animals on psilocybin trips ...... From obsevation cows and horses .

Others ? Fish ? Birds ?