Buy a 100-mln-year-old fossilised mushroom for 100,000 dollars

A 100 million year old fossilised mushroom discovered by an amber collecting team, has been put up on sale for a pricey 100,000 dollars.

London, Oct 2 : A 100 million year old fossilised mushroom discovered by an amber collecting team, has been put up on sale for a pricey 100,000 dollars.

George Poinar, an Oregon State University zoologist and president of The Amber Institute, in Corvallis, Oregon, discovered the fossil along with Ron Buckley, a registered nurse and amateur fossil hunter from Florence, Kentucky.

Buckley spotted it encased in a piece of Burmese amber that he had obtained from a Canadian importer.

With the help of Poinar, he determined that the mushroom was a record-breaking 100-million years old.

The duo published their results in April in the journal Mycological Research.

Now, Buckley has listed his specimen on e-bay. The high price, according to him, reflects its rarity and the many hours he has logged on his collection.

Over the years, Buckley has sold hundreds of other more common specimens through the online auction site.

However, not everybody is pleased with his decision to sell the fungus.

David Hibbett, a mycologist at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, said, the decision to sell scientifically interesting artefacts could be distressing because it might make the samples unavailable for future study.

"Having said that, I respect the right of the owner to do with this specimen as he wishes," said Hibbett.

Hibbett, who described in a Nature article in 1995, what was until now the oldest mushroom, said Buckley's specimen is of only limited scientific value.

Scientists cannot yet extract DNA from such samples, and the fungus cannot be placed in any known modern phylogeny.

"From an aesthetic perspective, however, the specimen may be priceless," Nature quoted Hibbett, as saying.

Buckley said he tried to get museums interested in buying his entire collection, but no one was willing to pay his 650,000 dollars asking price.

He would now sell his collection to private collectors but only upon getting assurances from the buyers that they will not hesitate to share it with any researcher who might like to take a look.

ANI