Ears and brains

Ears and a lump of brain scattered on the forest floor; has there been a murder? Happily not, the ears are the fruiting bodies of the fungus Auricularia auricula-judae, commonly known as jelly ears, which makes its living by breaking down dead wood.

The brain is another fungus, the yellow brain jelly fungus Tremella mesenterica  which is a parasite  of another fungus Peniophora which itself breaks down dead wood for a living. Nature is very complex!