 In 1998 , following large @-@ scale frog deaths in Australia and Central America , research teams in both areas came up with identical results : a previously undescribed species of pathogenic fungus , Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis . It is now clear that many recent extinctions of amphibians in Australia and the Americas are linked to this fungus . This fungus belongs to a family of <unk> known as chytrids that are not generally pathogenic . 
