NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -In 1969, a scientist named Robert Whittaker published the first major revision to Linnaeus’s proposed two kingdom classification – animals and plants (which included fungi). In the revised version, Whittaker suggested that fungi should be classified as a separate kingdom, and this has been accepted by scientists.

Detailed explanation-2: -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.

Detailed explanation-3: -Introduction. The kingdom fungi lies on the opisthokont lineage of the Eukaryotes and thus is a closer relative to the animals than to the plants. The fossil record of the fungi is estimated to date back as far as 900 million years with all major classes represented about 300 million years ago (Taylor et al. 1994).

Detailed explanation-4: -The medical relevance of fungi was discovered in 1928, when Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming noticed the green mold Penicillium notatum growing in a culture dish of Staphylococcus bacteria.

Detailed explanation-5: -Linnaeus (1753) coined the term Fungi as a plant class. Jahn and Jahn (1949) and later Whittaker (1959) used the term to define the kingdom; however, Moore (1980) was the first to apply a formal diagnosis to Fungi as the name of a kingdom.