Scientists name Tiny fungus after Dune’s fearsome sandworms

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Scientists studying newly discovered species of fungus in Hungary have named one of their finds after the giant sandworms featured in the novel Dune.

The fungus, Tulostoma shaihuludii, takes its name from the Shai-Hulud or sandworm, a fictional creature native to the planet Arrakis. In Frank Herbert’s novel Dune and its sequels, the Shai-Hulud are described as growing up to 400 metres in length and 40 metres in diameter. They can ingest people and even machinery as they churn their way through the desert, although the Fremen people who live on the planet have learned to ride them.

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T. shaihuludii is a far less fearsome life form, its stem a mere three to seven centimetres in length and less than a centimetre wide. It is topped by a spore sac less than two centimetres across, “relatively small compared to the size of the stem,” according to Peter Finy of Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, the lead author of the research paper.

Nevertheless, the scientists thought there was enough similarity in appearance to name it after its much larger and more mobile cousin. They also referred to its gleba (the spore-bearing interior) as “ferruginous-cinnamon-brown” in colour, perhaps another nod to the Shai-Hulud, which are said to produce a cinnamon-like spice of extreme value.

Another of the newly discovered species was named T. dunense, ostensibly after the sand dunes that are its main habitat, although another cheeky nod to Dune cannot be ruled out. A third species, T. hungaricum, was presumably named for the country in which all three types were found.

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The first Dune novel has been adapted into film, once by David Lynch in 1984, and more recently by Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Dune: Part 2 opened in theatres last week and has already proven a hit with audiences and critics, raising hopes that a third instalment is in the works.

T. shaihuludii isn’t the first life to be named after the sandworm. Last summer, University of Kansas paleontologist Rhiannon LaVine discovered a 500-million-year-old fossil of a sea worm, and named the never-before-seen critter Shaihuludia shurikeni. The second half of the name means “throwing star” in Japanese, and is a reference to the creature’s blade-like bristles.

“It was the first thing that came to mind, because I’m a big ol’ nerd, and at the time I was getting really excited for the ‘Dune’ movies,” LaVine said in a statement at the time.

Like T. shaihuludii, the ancient, extinct sea worm is also a lightweight, measuring “about seven or eight centimetres long, maybe a little shorter than the length of a smartphone,” LaVine wrote in a published paper.

Dune has also inspired the names of off-world locations. Arrakis Planitia is a vast plain of organic sand on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. Other plains on Titan are named after the planets Buzzell, Caladan, Xuttah and more from the Dune novels.

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Scientists studying newly discovered species of fungus in Hungary have named one of their finds after the giant sandworms featured in the novel Dune.

The fungus, Tulostoma shaihuludii, takes its name from the Shai-Hulud or sandworm, a fictional creature native to the planet Arrakis. In Frank Herbert’s novel Dune and its sequels, the Shai-Hulud are described as growing up to 400 metres in length and 40 metres in diameter. They can ingest people and even machinery as they churn their way through the desert, although the Fremen people who live on the planet have learned to ride them.

Article content

T. shaihuludii is a far less fearsome life form, its stem a mere three to seven centimetres in length and less than a centimetre wide. It is topped by a spore sac less than two centimetres across, “relatively small compared to the size of the stem,” according to Peter Finy of Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, the lead author of the research paper.

Nevertheless, the scientists thought there was enough similarity in appearance to name it after its much larger and more mobile cousin. They also referred to its gleba (the spore-bearing interior) as “ferruginous-cinnamon-brown” in colour, perhaps another nod to the Shai-Hulud, which are said to produce a cinnamon-like spice of extreme value.

Another of the newly discovered species was named T. dunense, ostensibly after the sand dunes that are its main habitat, although another cheeky nod to Dune cannot be ruled out. A third species, T. hungaricum, was presumably named for the country in which all three types were found.

Article content

The first Dune novel has been adapted into film, once by David Lynch in 1984, and more recently by Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Dune: Part 2 opened in theatres last week and has already proven a hit with audiences and critics, raising hopes that a third instalment is in the works.

T. shaihuludii isn’t the first life to be named after the sandworm. Last summer, University of Kansas paleontologist Rhiannon LaVine discovered a 500-million-year-old fossil of a sea worm, and named the never-before-seen critter Shaihuludia shurikeni. The second half of the name means “throwing star” in Japanese, and is a reference to the creature’s blade-like bristles.

“It was the first thing that came to mind, because I’m a big ol’ nerd, and at the time I was getting really excited for the ‘Dune’ movies,” LaVine said in a statement at the time.

Like T. shaihuludii, the ancient, extinct sea worm is also a lightweight, measuring “about seven or eight centimetres long, maybe a little shorter than the length of a smartphone,” LaVine wrote in a published paper.

Dune has also inspired the names of off-world locations. Arrakis Planitia is a vast plain of organic sand on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. Other plains on Titan are named after the planets Buzzell, Caladan, Xuttah and more from the Dune novels.

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