Do we owe our lives to fungi?
I just realized while asking this, it's the fungi who takes our bodies!

But are we here, in the first place, thanks to the fungi?

Of course plants came first.. but could we be here without the fungi?
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answers:
JazSinc say: > Do we owe our lives to fungi?

No

Without fungi. there are other decomposers such as bacteria and archaea to carry on that part of the biogeochemical cycles.
Without fungi, plants would have developed better roots.
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Solomon P say: no, God made us
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Ray say: Yes, we do. From the late Silurian until the Late Devonian, Prototaxite forests extracted the necessary nutrients and minerals from earths prehistoric bedrock to make life on land possible. Fungi grows on rock, and can extract the nutrients from the rock [creating dirt]. These ancient fungi forest detoxified the ancient atmosphere and created enough dirt for plants to flourish.
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ob1knob say: No, but we have an evolutionary journey together.

We, animals and mushrooms, share the animal side of eukaryotes when plants and seaweed are on the plant side.
We evolved to process biological compounds coming from dead or living organisms and produce our energy (heterotrophs) while plants metabolize non-biological elements, use separate energy (often sunlight) and produce organic materials with that (autotrophs).

So roughly:
- we owe our organic food (biology meaning, not marketing!) and our oxygen to plantae/algae kingdom.
- we owe our ability to feed on this organic food to our fungi ancestors (2.4 billion years ago - after the oxygen crisis) from whom we branched out less than 1 billion years ago (Ediacaran fauna?)
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Stella say: I suppose.
But you could say the same thing about bacteria, plants, insects, the sun, the moon and any number of other things.
Everything is tied together.
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Eddi say: It is fair to say that the earth could not exist as we know it without fungi. Humans would not be here without them since --

1. The majority of grasses and trees require a mycorrhizal relationship with fungi to survive.
2. Yeasts have been used for thousands of years in the production of beer, wine, and bread. Civilization would not have developed without these food stuffs.
3. Fungi not only directly produce substances that humans use as medicine (such as antibiotics and vaccines), but they are also versatile tools in the vast field of medical research.
4. Some fungi attack insects and, therefore, can be used as natural pesticides.
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DrJ say: We owe our lives and the biogeochemical life cycles that make life possible to the decomposers.
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say: Yes, penicillin is a wonderful thing and has saved many lives.
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Bob the Builder say: No, God made us exactly as we are today. Nothing has ever, or will ever, change...EVER. It says so in Genesis in the bible and my pastor who I donate 10% of all my earnings to says so. And I know he knows because he's never been brain washed by a science class in his life and drives a Mercedes. He's gotta be smart to live in a mansion and drive a nice car, so I know science is lying.
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