We are witnessing a mass extinction. An exotic fungus is delivering the fatal blow to many amphibians already hit by habitat loss, pollution, and climate change.
Frogs and toads, salamanders and newts, wormlike (and little-known) caecilians—these are the class Amphibia: cold-blooded, creeping, hopping, burrowing creatures of fairy tale, biblical plague, proverb, and witchcraft
Amphibians are among the groups hardest hit by today's many strikes against wildlife. As many as half of all species are under threat.
It's no wonder some view our time on Earth as a mass extinction. Biodiversity losses today have reached levels not seen since the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. Yet amphibians were able to hold on through past extinction spasms, surviving even when 95 percent of other animals died out, and later when the dinosaurs disappeared. If not then, why now?
a form of fungal infection, chytridioÂmycosis (chytrid for short)
clipped from: ngm.nationalgeographic.com 