Why is a jellyfish an animal but a mushroom is not? By and large, animals have wobbly cell walls, digest food internally, can move around and have specialised tissues such as nerves and muscles.
Mushrooms, on the other hand, are classed as fungi. Fungi have rigid cell walls, digest their food externally, can’t move around and don’t have nerves or muscles.
Fungi and animals last shared a common ancestor over a billion years ago, and ever since then they’ve been travelling on separate evolutionary trajectories.
Jellyfish evolved at least 500 million years ago, by which time mushrooms were already firmly in a different club that the jellies can never join!
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Ellis Smith, via email) 'Why is a jellyfish an animal but a mushroom is not?'
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