Wired reports that Rainforest Fungus Naturally Synthesizes Diesel:

A fungus that lives inside trees in the Patagonian rain forest naturally makes a mix of hydrocarbons that bears a striking resemblance to diesel, biologists announced today. And the fungus can grow on cellulose, a major component of tree trunks, blades of grass and stalks that is the most abundant carbon-based plant material on Earth.

“When we looked at the gas analysis, I was flabbergasted,” said Gary Strobel, a plant scientist at Montana State University, and the lead author of a paper in Microbiology describing the find. “We were looking at the essence of diesel fuel.”

The beauty of the diesel engine is that Rudolf Diesel wanted fuel to be available in abundance. He specifically did not want people to have to use engines that depended on limited sources, especially those controlled by powerful oil corporations. Thus, it should not be too much of a surprise that the Gliocladium roseum fungus can break down wood and turn it into something akin to diesel fuel. It does, however, surprise me that there is now a question of whether petroleum is actually a byproduct of an ancient conversion by organisms.