The position of nucleariids, unicellular free-living phagotrophic amoebae,[3] as the earliest lineage of Holomycota suggests that animals and fungi independently acquired complex multicellularity from a common unicellular ancestor and that the osmotrophic lifestyle (one of the fungal hallmarks) was originated later in the divergence of this eukaryotic lineage.
[5] Rozella (Cryptomycota) is the earliest diverging fungal genus in which chitin has been observed at least in some stages of their life cycle,[5] although the chitinous cell wall (another fungal hallmark) and osmotrophy originated in a common ancestor of Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota, which still contain some ancestral characteristics such as the flagellum in zoosporic stage.
[6] The groups of fungi with the characteristic hyphal growth, Zoopagomycota, Mucoromycotina and Dikarya, originated from a common ancestor ~700 Mya.
[6] Zoopagomycota are mostly pathogens of animals or other fungi, Mucoromycotina is a more diverse group including parasites, saprotrophs or ectomycorrhizal.
[6] Because of this rich diversity, Dikarya includes highly morphologically distinct groups, from hyphae or unicellular yeasts (such as the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to the complex multicellular fungi popularly known as mushrooms.