Killer skin fungus nails boreal toads.The chytrid skin fungus, which made headlines last year after killing off amphibians amphibians members of the animal class Amphibia. Includes frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and cecilians all capable of living on land or in water. around the world, has now turned up in boreal bo·re·al adj. 1. Of or relating to the north; northern. 2. Of or concerning the north wind. 3. Boreal toads from Clear Creek Clear Creek may refer to any of the 1,305 streams bearing this name in the United States as reported by the United States Geological Survey See this link Hydronyms
This outbreak marks the fungus' second documented fatal attack on wild U.S. amphibians. Common in soil, many species of chytrids had been known to break down dead insects and cause crop diseases. Not until 1989 did pathologists realize that one of these fungi causes disease in vertebrates. Researchers first recognized the fungus as the agent behind puzzling amphibian amphibian, in zoology amphibian, in zoology, cold-blooded vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia. There are three living orders of amphibians: the frogs and toads (order Anura, or Salientia), the salamanders and newts (order Urodela, or Caudata), and the deaths in zoos. Last summer, several teams reported chytrid infections in amphibians in remote areas of Australia and Central America. Researchers next found the characteristic skin thickenings and spherical fungal bodies in dying leopard frogs in Arizona (SN: 7/4/98, p. 7). More news may break soon, however, hints D. Earl Green of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., the veterinary pathologist who diagnosed the Colorado outbreak. He recently completed an article analyzing amphibian deaths in Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park (yōsĕm`ĭtē), 761,266 acres (308,205 hectares), E central Calif.; est. 1890 as a result of the efforts of conservationist John Muir. Located in the Sierra Nevada, it is a glacier-scoured area of great beauty; Mt. in California. At the Colorado study site, a monitoring team found dead and dying boreal toads in May, and Green's microscopic exam revealed chytrid infection. The number of boreal toads, once common in Colorado, northern New Mexico Northern New Mexico may simply mean the northern part of New Mexico, but in cultural terms it usually means the area of heavy Spanish settlement in the north-central part. , and southern Wyoming, has dwindled alarmingly during the past 20 years. Whether the fungus started the population crash or just appeared in its twilight stages, Green declines to guess. "There's just no data," he laments. |
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