Taxonomy: Fungi and protists

Hey! Look at the mould. You can't eat that. It's poisonous! Oh, okay?

Is mould a poisonous plant? It's not a plant. But it's green? Yes, but it's not a plant. Is it an animal?

No. Mould is a kind of fungus. And fungi are not animals, nor plants. In the tree of life, Fungi is a Kingdom of its own, and systematically, therefore it's on same level as animals and plants. And in fact, fungi are more closely related to animals than plants, which might be hard to believe when you see them.

Fungi cannot create their own nutrition, like plants do. They get their nutrition from other biological material, and in that way they are more like animals. Often this nutrition comes from dead plants or animals, which make fungi important decomposers in nature. Other fungi get nutrition from living organisms. Sometimes this is beneficial to both the fungus and the other living organism.

It is a cooperation. And at other times, the fungi are parasites, which attack the other living animals and plants, slowly breaking them down. In Biology, there is also another kingdom at the same level. It consists of simple, often single celled, organisms like -- -- protozoa, single celled animals -- -- and mycetozoa: 'slime mould' which despite its name is not a fungus. This is the group Protists.

Just like animals and plants, fungi and protists can be divided into groups and subgroups, based on how closely the species are related. They have their places in the tree of life. But just how sure are biologists about these relationships? When it comes to fungi and protists, the scientists are currently in doubt. The most modern methods to study cells and genes seem to show that the tree of life might need to be reorganised.

Perhaps the domain eukaryotes will consist of more kingdoms in the future, but as of now we don't know how this classification will be done. That's the way it is. Sometimes, when new knowledge is added, we have to revise what we previously held as true. This is how science works. The only thing we can be sure of is that the tree of life will be changed.

I'll have an apple instead. Fresh, free of mould.