Role of fungi in the biogeochemical fate of depleted uranium

listed as endangered [8] and illegal gold mining resulting in increased turbidity and mercury contamination has severely degraded the type locality and much of its presumed former range. Compounding the problem, much of the surrounding terrestrial habitat is also under increasing threat from both legal and illegal logging. Conservation of this evolutionary enigma needs to be prioritized and the remaining habitat in which it can survive needs to be urgently protected. The evolution, development, and maintenance of lunglessness in this frog will become important research foci. How complete loss of lungs evolves and under what kind of selective pressures and genetic mechanisms has been well debated in salamanders [9,10]. However, these are still open and more manageable questions for an aquatic primitive frog. To better understand the extinction risk and endangered status of this species, a much more complete assessment of potential habitats needs to be surveyed and the exact geographic range for the species should be mapped. In addition, virtually nothing is known about how these frogs reproduce, eat and escape predation. Further studies, however, may be hampered by the species’ rarity and endangerment. We strongly encourage conservation of the remaining habitats of this species.