The History of Fungal Networks

The History of Fungal Networks 



Animals are more closely related to fungi than to any other kingdom. More than 600 million years ago we shared a common ancestry.
Fungi evolved a means of externally digesting food by secreting acids and enzymes into their immediate environs and then absorbing nutrients using netlike cell chains.
Fungi marched onto land more than a billion years ago. Many fungi partnered with plants, which largely lacked these digestive juices.
Mycologists believe that this alliance allowed plants to inhabit land around 700
million years ago. Many millions of years later, one evolutionary branch of fungi led to the development of animals.
The branch of fungi leading to animals evolved to capture nutrients by surrounding their food with cellular sacs, essentially primitive stomachs.
As species emerged from aquatic habitats, organisms adapted means to prevent
moisture loss. In terrestrial creatures, skin composed of many layers of cells emerged as a barrier against infection.
Taking a different evolutionary path, the mycelium retained its netlike form of interweaving chains of cells and went underground, forming a vast food web upon which life flourished.


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