FUNGI

Fungi have ancient origins, with evidence indicating they likely

first appeared about one billion years ago, though the fossil
record of fungi is scanty. Fungal hyphae evident within the
tissues of the oldest plant fossils confirm that fungi are an
extremely ancient group. Indeed, some of the oldest terrestrial
plantlike fossils known, called Prototaxites, which were common
in all parts of the world throughout the Devonian Period 419.2
million to 358.9 million years ago.
 It is probable that these earliest
fungi lived in water, and had
flagella. The earliest terrestrial
fungus fossils, or at least
fungus-like fossils, have been
found in South China from
around 635 million years ago.

WHERE IS FUNGI
ORIGINATED FROM
 Fungi are an important source of food. Some mushrooms such as Morchella and
Agaricus are edible.

 Yeast, a unicellular fungus, is important in bakeries as it is used in the making of

bread.

 Yeast also produces vitamin B

 Fungi, like bacteria, are also good decomposers. They decompose dead organic matter
and return the nutrients back into the soil.

 Penicillin an important antibiotic is obtained from a fungus called Pencillium

notatum.

THE USES OF FUNGI ARE:

 The researchers found that land plants had evolved on Earth by about
700 million years ago and land fungi by about 1,300 million years ago
— much earlier than previous estimates of around 480 million years
ago, which were based on the earliest fossils of those organisms. Prior
to this study, it was believed that Earth's landscape at that time was
covered with barren rocks harboring nothing more than some bacteria
and possibly some algae. No undisputed fossils of the earliest land
plants and fungi have been found in rocks formed during the
Precambrian period, says Hedges, possibly because their primitive
bodies were too soft to turn into fossils.

THE FUNGI APPEARED