Toads = Fungi? Mark 2.

[Meta Black Yoshi]

Perhaps Goombettes are what micro-Goombas turn into when they get older.

[shadowgoomba]

So they're intermediate stages...that makes sense. Maybe it works like this. Micro-Goombas spawn from Paragoombas. Micro-Goombas grow into Goombettes to protect against predators. Goombettes grow into Goombas, and become weak, as they expend most of their energy growing wings. Goombas grow wings in order to reproduce, and the cycle repeats. Makes perfect sense. And Micro-Goombas are harder to find because of their small size. Now all we have to answer is why Bowser doesn't use Goombettes (as far as we know)/ why they're so rare. Maybe Goombettes are only in that stage for a short time.

[Toomai]

I'd suspect Goombettes would only stay that way for two weeks or a month. Not a very short time, but just enough to make them rare.

[Rex]

I'm not sure that para-goombas are natural. Their wings fall off rather easily and it's mentioned somewhere that they go through "flight school".

[shadowgoomba]

Well, flight school could just be for training in Bowser's army. The wings I can't really explain, but Goony birds lose their wings really easily too and seem natural enough.

[Toomai]

Losing wings could be a defense mechanism. A predator that attacks from the air would cause the wings to fall off, making the Goonie/Paragoomba plummet. While the predator tries to figure out what happened, the Goonie/Paragoomba falls to the ground and hides somewhere. It'd take a while to get new wings (maybe a week), but they'd live.

[Rex]

Like a newt losing it's tail, I guess that could work. Except they probobly wouldn't survive a fall from very high up.

[shadowgoomba]

Well, everything seems to be able to do that. Mario, Bowser, an such can do it, and even Goombas (1-2) can do it in SMB3. Maybe they're like fleas, which I heard that, if they were the size of a human, could jump 3 times higher than the Statue of Liberty.

[Rex]

Falling into a pit can make you lose a life, and from what I've seen they don't have to be that deep to cause a rough landing. But if goombas can survive being squashed, then I guess they can survive a long fall. Perhaps they're shock absorbent or something.

[Meta Black Yoshi]

I'm sure they'd rather not fall from high up but if it was between that and a predator that was attacking them I think they might have a better time surviving the fall depending on what kind of predator.

[shadowgoomba]

I don't think that falling in the pit causes the loss of a life sometimes. I thought it just trapped Mario and he couldn't get back up because the walls are slippery. Some things, like off a mountain, are obviously too high though.