Fungi are a large group of organisms, there are about 100,000 species, including a variety of molds, yeasts and mushrooms umbrella fungi, etc., in the whole biological world occupies a very special position. Although they have long been reluctantly categorized by scientists into the plant kingdom, the debate on whether fungi are plants or animals has never stopped.
The earliest discussion of fungi dates back to the 4th century B.C., when the famous ancient Greek scholar Aristotle first described their characteristics in his own writings. About 300 years later, the famous scientist Pliny the Great began to categorize mushrooms into edible and poisonous mushrooms. However, people's understanding of fungi has long remained at a very na?ve level, knowing only that they are a class of organisms that have no chlorophyll, cannot photosynthesize, and often rely on saprophytic and parasitic organisms. Scientists can't even determine whether fungi are plants or animals, and no one has been able to come up with an authoritative definition for them.
As the study of fungi has continued, many scholars have put forward their own arguments for its proper categorization. In the early period, the botanist Nichol that, although the form of fungi, a variety of different faces, but are the product of plant tissue secretion, they are like plants on the waste, can not be classified into the category of living things, so he believes that fungi are closer to the minerals, rather than close to the plant. Although Nichol noticed the mycelial form, he wrongly assumed that the spidery substance was merely plant secretions, when in fact it was the fungus itself.
On this issue, even the famous plant taxonomist, the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus also feel confused. For a long time he thought that fungi were animals, because he found a small animal similar to Hydra in fungi. Later on, the French biologist Vaillant, in response to the scholars' inability to make sense of the situation, amusingly referred to fungi as "the devil's work that destroys the universal harmony of nature". The fungus, he said, is a plant, but without flowers, and it seems to have appeared in the world just to make things difficult for the most gifted researchers.
Despite all the differences in the categorization of fungi, most botanists believe that fungi are vegetative organisms. For example, the Paris Botanical Garden of botanists Durnefort that fungi and lichens should be grouped together, and they are collectively referred to as "flowerless and fruitless grasses, algae and wood". In the history of fungal research, the Italian scientist Micheli opened the door to the labyrinth of fungal life history for the first time. He proved with excellent research that fungi are propagated by very fine spores. Since then, mankind has ended the stage of blind speculation about fungi, and research has entered a new and higher field.
In the 18th century, Linnaeus classified fungi as another special class next to algae. However, just when most people thought that fungi were plants, many botanists put forward a strong new point of view. They believe that fungi have been born in the early history of life on earth, coupled with the lack of chlorophyll, can not produce their own food, so should not belong to the plant kingdom, but should be in the plant kingdom and animal kingdom alongside the third independent special kingdom - fungi. However, this new point of view was not supported by the peers, and after repeated heated debates, the fungi were finally included in the plant kingdom.
This situation continued into the 20th century, when a previously neglected idea gradually gained prominence, and in 1909, the Russian scientist Manelezhkovsky once again proposed the establishment of a new realm outside the animal and plant kingdoms, namely the fungus realm, which would include bacteria, blue-green algae, and fungi.
At the same time, other scientists made a lot of concrete scientific arguments against this classification. They pointed out that the three juxtaposed kingdoms were distinctive in their lifestyles. They are from three hypothetical ancestors: the original host plant; the original host plant; the original animal. Later, scientists further proposed that the biological world can be divided into four kingdoms: Schizontia (bacteria and algae); Fungi; Plants; Animals. With the continuous development of science, modern biology experts have adopted the most modern technical means, respectively, from biochemistry, cytology, genetics and other different angles to study fungi. They found that fungi do have the characteristics of both plant and animal tissues. For example, fungi can directly exchange ammonia, have chitin (chitosan) in the cell wall, and store liver sugar. From these aspects, fungi are very close to animals. However, according to the way of life of fungi, the cell wall and cell membrane characteristics, they are very close to plants.
So fungi are plants or animals? So far, scientists are still divided on this issue. In 1975 held the 12th International Biological Conference, the zoologists and botanists have carried out a wide range of in-depth discussion, trying to determine the status of fungi in the biological world, but in the end still did not come to a unified conclusion. However, most of the mycologists believe that, because of the fungi have a series of special morphological characteristics and physiological traits, it should still belong to the animal kingdom, plant kingdom and the new world - fungi.
On the attribution of fungi, from ancient times to the present has been debated for more than 2,000 years, although today has not yet reached a completely unified conclusion, but in the future research, the understanding of the fungi will inevitably be further deepened, and then the mystery of the attribution of the fungi will be solved
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