These ‘mushroom men’ have been named ‘geastrum britannicum’ (Picture: Caters News Agency)

You would be mistaken for thinking you are looking at a group of tiny dolls.

But these weird, human-shaped things are actually a newly discovered species of mushroom.

With fleshy heads, arms and legs, they look like pretty fun guys (sorry, we had to).

Discovered by Jonathan Revett in Cockley Cley, Norfolk, they have been given the name geastrum britannicum – which reflects the fact they are unique to the UK.


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Jonathan, 49, said: ‘They do look like little mushroom men.



‘It’s really strange how their shape makes them look like they have a head and arms.

‘That’s what drew my attention to them.’

Jonathan first spotted the weird mushrooms in 2000 but experts, at Kew Gardens dismissed them as a sub-species of earthstar fungi- which are common in Norfolk.

However, 15 years later, mycologists in Spain carried out DNA sequence analysis and have just confirmed they differ slightly.

Jonathan – who runs the mycology website fenfungi.com – said: ‘It felt brilliant knowing I’d found something new.

‘I wouldn’t normally question the experts but I just knew these were different.

‘I go back to the site every year doing tours and they’re always there.

‘It’s incredible to think I’d only gone out there to look at some big mushrooms I’d been tipped off about.’

Since Jonathan’s original find, three more specimens have been collected in Norfolk and the fungus has also been found in Hampshire and the Welsh Borders.

Carl Chapman, of Norfolk-based Wildlife Tours and Education, said: ‘This is riveting stuff. This is not just a new species for Norfolk – this is a new species for the world.

‘They were doing the work and requested some samples of this fungus and found the DNA was different.’