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?

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[–] 13 points 1 day ago*

This is specifically the case for fungi too.

Most mushrooms varieties want to be eaten so that an animal can spread the spores, and the spores are primed by the digestive scarification process. Few mushrooms are toxic to all species.

Example paper

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