Dung Cannon: A Creature That Shoots Faster Than a Kalashnikov Assault Rifle (5 photos)
This is the fruiting body of a mushroom. Its scientific name is Pilobolus crystallinus, and its common name is the dung cannon. 
No, it doesn't shoot dung, as its name suggests. It's a bit more sophisticated, and it has to do with its reproduction and dispersal strategy. 
This mushroom grows on dung heaps. Its spores are carried by herbivores, allowing it to colonize new territories. After all, the manure pile will eventually run out, and a new habitat will have to be found.
But here's the problem: animals don't eat manure. How can we get them to consume the spores if they fall from the fruiting bodies onto the pile? To address this, mushroom engineers have invented an amazing seeder that allows for an effective population policy. 
The mushroom itself doesn't like oxygen, and its mycelium grows in the oxygen-free environment of the manure pile. However, it later releases fruiting bodies, which resemble bubbles on glass stems.
These bubbles contain the mushroom's spores. As they mature, the pressure inside becomes so great that the cap breaks, and the spores shoot out. And it's not by accident that I used the word "shoot." 
The spores reach their maximum speed in a few millionths of a second, exceeding the acceleration of a bullet fired from a Kalashnikov assault rifle and can reach up to ninety kilometers per hour! And the spores themselves can travel up to two hundred meters.
They are covered in a layer of sticky mucus, so they stick to plants and bide their time until another cow eats them. And in a very short time, the world will have another fortified pile of manure, armed with a battery of crystal cannons. 
