The Bee published stories on Monday about the decline in the mountain yellow-legged frog and efforts being made to save the amphibian, but we didn't talk about how tough these critters are throughout the world.

Amphibians have survived several mass extinctions in the distant past. Most recently, they lived through the extinction that wiped out dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

So they've survived some of the worst hits for life on Earth, but perhaps 200 species already have been wiped out in this era.

Humans have destroyed the habitat of mountain yellow-legged frog in California, but there are bigger problems in the escalating loss of amphibians around the globe. Many of those problems are occurring here, too.

Ultraviolet radiation, climate change and pesticides are all on the list. But the most sinister, according to scientists, is the infectious disease, chytridiomycosis, also known as chytrid fungus.

Many experts think chytrid fungus is directly responsible for decimating more than 200 amphibian species. It is an aquatic fungus. And even more concerning, it is the first of its kind to focus only on amphibians.