Frogs and toads throughout the world are being killed by a fungus that is new to science. The fungus, which coats their undersides and legs, is thought to be suffocating the animals, which breathe through their skins. It could be a major factor underlying the decline in amphibian populations reported worldwide. The fungus has been found independently by teams in the US and Australia. It belongs to a new genus of chytrid, a group thought to be related to the earliest fungi. Although other chytrids parasitise a range of organisms, from microscopic algae to insects, they have never before been found to cause disease in vertebrates.
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