On 9/14/2011 6:24 AM, Invisible wrote:
> Are fungi poisonous on purpose, or is it just a side-effect of their
> unusual body chemistry?

Nothing is "poisonous on purpose", everything is a side-effect of 
different body chemistry. It just happens that, in some cases, those 
side effects make them a lot bloody harder for other things to eat. In 
the case of Fungi, however, it may also lend itself to death near the 
fungi, and this more nutrients, or it might have a similar effect on 
other fungi, which are in competition, and just, by coincidence, happen 
to effect humans, and animals. Most often, the effected species are 
insects. Thus, anything that, for example, has a nervous system, is 
likely to have the unfortunate coincidence of also being harmed by 
something that originally only was lethal to insects.

As Darwin said, "No adaptation is ever for the explicit benefit, or 
harm, of another species. It can only benefit the species that has it, 
any effect it has on other species is happenstance."

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