Q 01/05

Which substance in their cell walls sets fungi apart from plants, bacteria and most protists?

A) Keratin

B) Chitin

C) Cellulose

D) Lignin

Answer · why

B) Chitin

The same tough polymer forms the exoskeletons of insects and crabs; fungi are the only organisms that combine it with glucans in a cell wall.

Q 02/05

Genetically, fungi are more closely related to which group than to plants?

A) Algae

B) Mosses

C) Bacteria

D) Animals

Answer · why

D) Animals

Both sit in the opisthokonts, a lineage marked by a single trailing flagellum, and both are heterotrophs that must eat rather than photosynthesise.

Q 03/05

What is the scientific study of fungi called?

A) Bryology

B) Lichenology

C) Mycology

D) Phycology

Answer · why

C) Mycology

The word comes from the Greek mykes, mushroom; the discipline was once treated as a branch of botany.

Q 04/05

Roughly how many fungal species have been formally described, out of an estimated 2.2 to 3.8 million?

A) About 1.2 million

B) About 148,000

C) About 500,000

D) About 15,000

Answer · why

B) About 148,000

More than 90 percent of fungi are thought to be still unknown; 2,905 new species were named in 2020 alone, a record.

Q 05/05

The Latin word fungus, used by Horace and Pliny, ultimately derives from a Greek word meaning what?

A) Root

B) Sponge

C) Cap

D) Rot

Answer · why

B) Sponge

The same root gives German its words for both sponge and mould.