ArticleEcology and evolution2026
Wherefore the Magic? The Evolutionary Role of Psilocybin in Nature.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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17 authors.
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Abstract
Research into psychedelic compounds is in resurgence because of the exciting potential for their use in the treatment of psychiatric and mental health disorders. Despite this revival, remarkably little is known about their evolution. One of the most intriguing psychedelic compounds is psilocybin, the compound found in 'magic' mushrooms and used in ritual ceremonies in North America for generations. Associated with agaricomycete fungi across eight distantly related genera, psilocybin acts in a similar way to the neurotransmitter serotonin, yet how and why natural selection favoured its biosynthesis remains unclear. Given the resemblance to serotonin, a highly conserved neurotransmitter across invertebrates and vertebrates, modulation of invertebrate behaviour for defence is a likely explanation, but neither this nor alternative hypotheses have ever been formally tested. Here, we show that
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