Amphibians Going the Way of the Dinosaurs
If we don’t act soon, amphibians could disappear – forever. That may seem improbable given how many frogs, toads, salamander and newts there are on this planet, but experts say they’re in a swift decline and projected losses would constitute the biggest mass extinction since the disappearance of dinosaurs.
Amphibians are currently found on every continent except Antarctica, with some species able to survive partial freezing, 10 years without food, long droughts and temperatures of up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit – but that doesn’t make them immune to the problems that are facing them now.
From BBC News:
A third of all species of amphibian are threatened with extinction; nearly half are in decline, and they are the most threatened of all the vertebrate groups.
The usual suspects of habitat destruction, climate change, invasive species, environmental contaminants and overexploitation represent key interrelated factors.
Additionally, a disease called chytridiomycosis or “chytrid” (caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) infects a wide range of amphibians globally and is capable of driving species to extinction.
Exacerbated by the other issues impacting amphibians, chytrid has emerged as one of the major threats to their survival. This disease can kill amphibians in otherwise pristine habitats or provide the final nail in the coffin for species already pushed to the brink of extinction.
Naturally, amphibians play an incredibly important role in the food chain, consuming massive amounts of invertibrates that we humans consider pests. Their skins also contain important pharmaceutical compounds like epibatidine, which is a painkiller 200 times more effective than morphine.
A new conservation organization called the Amphibian Survival Alliance has been launched in an effort to protect these creatures, but so far it’s seriously underfunded. Hopefully they’ll start seeing some donations roll in soon, because a world without amphibians would be really sad.
Link BBC News
Photo credit: R A Mittermeier/BBC News
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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 10th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Consciousness, Green Living, Health, Science, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
