[quote=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus#Evolution]
<<[b][u][color=#0000FF]A fungus (plural: fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom[/color][/u][/b], which is separate from the other eukaryotic life kingdoms of plants and animals. The earliest fossils possessing features typical of fungi date to the Paleoproterozoic era, some 2,400 million years ago (Ma); these multicellular benthic organisms had filamentous structures capable of anastomosis. In May 2019, scientists reported the discovery of a fossilized fungus, named Ourasphaira giraldae, in the Canadian Arctic, that may have grown on land a billion years ago, well before plants were living on land.
[b][color=#0000FF]Some time after the Permian–Triassic extinction event (251.4 Ma), a fungal spike (originally thought to be an extraordinary abundance of fungal spores in sediments) formed, suggesting that fungi were the dominant life form at this time, representing nearly 100% of the available fossil record for this period. 65 million years ago, immediately after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that famously killed off most dinosaurs, there is a dramatic increase in evidence of fungi, apparently the death of most plant and animal species leading to a huge fungal bloom like "a massive compost heap".[/color][/b]>>[/quote][quote=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/yeast-coronavirus-supply]
Aspiring bakers have emptied supermarket shelves during the coronavirus lockdown and turned yeast into gold dust
By Chris Stokel-Walker, Tuesday 28 April 2020
<<As the coronavirus has taken hold and shut down our lives, we’ve taken to baking more. First the shortages were felt in flour, where you couldn’t get a bag of any type for love nor money. And once the newly-minted home bakers of the country hoovered up all the flour, they came back for the yeast. Three-quarters of a million more Brits bought yeast compared with the same period last year.
The overwhelming majority of yeast produced in the UK is fresh yeast, either in a cake or cream form. You take a batch of diluted molasses and seed it with the strain of yeast you want depending on its use and the climate in which most of it will be used. The yeast multiplies in giant vats, and becomes a concentrated slurry of yeast cells – the cream. Some modern industrial bakeries prefer their yeast in this form, while artisan commercial bakers prefer “cake” yeast, where the slurry is filtered and packed into supple blocks. Supermarkets hate fresh yeast because of its short shelf life and its difficulty in storage. So they want dry yeast.
[float=left][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-F0Fu26WU8[/youtube][/float]The yeast is being produced,” he’s quick to point out. “But all of a sudden the market is being hit by demand from household customers to bake their own bread. Scarcity on the shelves has driven people to desperate measures. Searches for the phrase “yeast for bread” have increased more than 1,000 per cent in the last 30 days. Several sellers who appeared to be capitalising on the rarity of yeast in the current market, selling 25g packets of yeast for £3.39, a 900 per cent markup on supermarket yeast packet prices, did not respond to requests to speak for this story.
“Call it supply and demand, or profiteering, some online sellers are asking ridiculous money for flour and dried yeast,” says Chris Young of the Real Bread Campaign. Yet this hasn't stopped people from buying yeast. More than 560 people have purchased the overpriced yeast from this seller on eBay, and internal metrics at the online auction site suggest that more than 500 people are viewing the listing every day.
There are other options, of course. You can make a sourdough starter – or buy one, if you’re unable to mix flour and water together. Dried fruit also works, providing natural sugars to culture strains of yeast. If you’re desperate, soda bread can be made with buttermilk, flour and baking powder, and takes a fraction of the time. Or if you find some old yeast at the back of the cupboard that seems out of date, don’t throw it out – that stuff is gold dust.>>[/quote]