The species are the latest victims of the deadly chytrid fungus, which has caused major amphibian declines in Central and South America as well as in Australia since the late 1980s. The fungus infects an amphibian's skin, sloughing off the skin's layers and causing lethargy, weight loss, and eventual death.

Suspecting the imminent arrival of chytrid, researchers had visited the forests of El Copé (see map) between 1998 and 2004 to record genetic information from the region's frog and salamander species.

Chytrid swept through El Copé in 2004, wiping out amphibians so quickly that dead frogs littered the forest floor, according to study leader Andrew Crawford, an evolutionary biologist at the University of the Andes