Edit: looking at all the elaborate replies, I cannot help being amazed. Here I thought the Fedi is overrepresented by computer geeks (such as yours truly) but obviously they’ve got NOTHING on the biologically inclined here! 🥰😍
If poisonous mushrooms are poisonous because it is advantageous for the survival of the specific species, are non poisonous mushroom relatively speaking weaker, less well equipped for the furthering of their species? I suppose that the ability to survive and further a species is multifaceted and that being poisonous or the lack thereof is just one of many parameters?
IDK anything about biology so this is just supposition…
Aren’t fungi one of the oldest forms of life?
If so is it possible the poison isn’t really relevant to the fungis survival and reproduction, but just… incidentally toxic to mammals?
yes they evolved like 1-2bn years ago, so very old. algae even older. archaea and bacteria likely appeared 3.5bn years ago the LUCA is older(common to all living things)