Similarities include:

• Humans and fungi take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Plants do the opposite.

• Humans and fungi do not have chloroplasts (the part of plant cells necessary for photosynthesis) allowing plants to create their own nourishment. 

• Both humans and fungi are heterotrophic (unlike plants) meaning we generate energy by consuming elements, secreting digestive enzymes and absorbing nutrients instead of producing our own food as plants do.

• Not really scientific, but if you have ever bitten into a Portabella or Lion's Mane mushroom the meaty texture cannot be denied.

• For the scientifically inclined reader: using a process called computational phylogenetics, scientists found that fungi and humans form a biological clade, meaning that two organisms share a common ancestor. This clade is called ”opisthokonta,” a name for the posterior flagellum that propels both animal sperm and fungal spores.

• Studies show that approximately 1.5 billion years ago, animals and fungi separated from plants. Then some estimated 10 million years later animals separated from fungi. Currently, humans share roughly 50% of our DNA with the average fungus!

 

Throughout human history fungi were understandably grouped into the

kingdom of plants.The discovery that fungi are more genetically related to

animals than plants led to the creation of their own Kingdom only as recently as 1969!

It follows then that the exploration of fungi is in a relatively infantile stage. 

Exciting new discoveries are being made everyday. 

New species of fungi are consistently being discovered. An estimated 2,000 new species

are found every year. Approximately 148,000 species of fungi have been identified

and it is projected that 2.2 – 3.8 MILLION species currently exist on earth!