consort to a new study bring out inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , most 200 mintage of frog ( or around 3.1 percent ) have get extinct since the 1970s , and hundreds more ( an estimated 6.9 percent ) may be at peril because of a pathogenic chytrid fungus known asBatrachochytrium dendrobatidis ; it causes the often virulent disease chytridiomycosis , commonly known as chytrid .
The percentages are comparatively small , but scientist are worried about the big picture . The Washington Postreportsthat the extinction pace for reptilian and amphibians is 10,000 times groovy than for any other organisms . “ If you project that forward for the next span of centuries , you terminate up with a percentage which would resemble a mass extinction,”John Alroy , life scientist and source of the study , told theSydney Morning Herald .
The early display case of chytriddates all the elbow room back to the 1930s , but the aquatic fungus itself was not identify until 1998 . The origins are still unknown , but chytrid has been linked to quite a little destruction of amphibious aircraft on every continent except Antarctica . grant to John Mortonof the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska , the disease
Alroy notesthat the largest loss of frog mintage due to chytrid has occurred in Central America and Brazil , and that frogs have been fail elsewhere because of other factor , including disforestation , the intromission of invasive mintage , and , potentially , global thawing . “ dependable to goodness , I do n’t know what ’s going on , ” Alroy toldThe Washington Post . “ The pattern seems to be that there are more extinctions in the wet tropics , verbalize very loosely , which is not too surprising because that ’s where all the biodiversity is . ”
As for solving the chytrid upshot , there are way to treat the disease with antifungal medications , but only in controlled environments , not in the wild . A 2009 studyfound that taking an antifungal bacteria screw asJanthinobacterium lividum(which is ground on some amphibians ) and adding it to the tegument of mountain yellow - legged frogs prevented chytrid - related death , but more research is needed to tackle the effect on a larger graduated table .
