Eli5: what makes fungi so fundamentally different from plants and animals, they get their own category?

291 views

I mean, the animal part seems intuitive, however I’d like to hear the whole story…

In: 0

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It mostly comes down to the structure of their cells. (A cell is “the basic building blocks of life”, you are comprised of several animal cells, plants are made of plant cells, bacteria are themselves a single cell, etc)

Animal cells don’t have parts to make energy (food) from light. Plant cells can, and also have a very rigid border that keeps them upright.

Fungal cells look like plants, but many species don’t have cells that make food from light, and are generally more similar, structurally, to animal cells. But nobody would call a fungus an animal, they’re different enough to warrant their own kingdom.

That may be an easy line to draw, but for other cases it may not be so. You may be thinking that everything I’m saying is all well and good, but there must be some creatures that are so similar or so unique that they deserve a class of themselves.

We’re pretty decided on the different kingdoms, but taxonomists regularly disagree with each other on most other things.

You are viewing 1 out of 6 answers, click here to view all answers.