They first put their little Twinkie samples in lab dishes with nutrients commonly used to grow fungi. Their scientific control was bits of an “asymptomatic” Twinkie from the same box.

From the Twinkie marked with just a dark circle of mold, they were able to grow up a species of Cladosporium. “Cladosporium is one of the most common, airborne, indoor molds, worldwide,” says Kasson, who cautions that they haven’t done a DNA analysis to confirm the species.

So far, however, no fungi has grown from the sample taken out of the mummified Twinkie. “It may be that we don’t have any living spores, despite this wonderful, rare event that we’ve witnessed,” says Lovett. “Spores certainly die, and depending on the fungus, they can die very quickly.”