An Oregon scientist and a Kentucky nurse have found the oldest known mushroom, entombed in a 100-million-year-old piece of amber from Burma.

A closer examination of the nine-hundredths-inch-long mushroom cap revealed that it had been infected by an ancient parasite, which a second parasite was feeding on.

"I was amazed enough with the mushroom," said George Poinar, a retired entomology professor in Corvallis. "But then seeing the parasites was astonishing. No one has ever seen this three-tier association before."
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