Now bring me a T. rex tapeworm!

I had planned to spend today NOT writing about parasites, but this morning I've already gotten comments and tweets informing me about a very cool new paper that was published today, documenting parasitized zombies 48 million years ago.

All right, then. The parasite overlords cannot be ignored.

The parasite in question is the fiendishly awesome Cordyceps, a fungus that forces its insect hosts to climb up high on plants, clamp down, and hold fast. The fungus then sprouts out of the ant's body...