Ten species could soon be added to Australia’s list of extinct fauna, including a Queensland frog that was last seen in 1990.

The federal government’s scientific advisory body is assessing whether to add nine mammals and the mountain mistfrog to its list of native animal species considered extinct under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

If declared extinct, the number of extinct species on the EPBC fauna list will grow by almost 20%, and the number of extinct mammals by one-third, with scientists saying it demonstrates Australia’s extinction record is worse than currently recognised.

Seven of the mammals are species considered to have died out between the 1800s and the 1950s, and which were discovered through small piles of fossil remains.

The remaining two mammals are the bramble cay melomys and the Christmas Island pipistrelle, recent species that scientists confirmed as extinct between 2009 and 2014.

“We’ve lost much of the nature that makes this country distinctive and special,” said John Woinarski, a professor of conservation biology whose book, The Action Plan for Australian Mammals, prompted some of the new assessments.

“But the extent of loss has been even more severe than is generally acknowledged.”

The species being assessed for extinction

mountain mistfrog

bramble cay melomys

Christmas Island pipistrelle

desert bettong

Nullarbor dwarf bettong

Capricorn rabbit rat

broad-cheeked hoppingmouse

long-eared mouse

blue-grey mouse

Percy Island flying fox

Australia already has the worst record for mammalian extinction of any country in the past 200 years.

Last month, the Senate launched an inquiry into fauna extinctions following a Guardian investigation.

The mountain mistfrog was a rainforest dwelling frog found at higher elevations in north-eastern Queensland.

Its decline is believed to have been the result of a deadly disease caused by chytrid fungus, which wiped out many populations of frogs globally in the 1980s and 1990s.

Ross Alford, an emeritus professor of ecology at James Cook University who worked on the recovery plan for the mountain mistfrog, said the disease had hit frog species across Australia but it was in high elevation rainforest that it had the biggest effect.

“In the case of the mountain mistfrog people have pretty intensively searched for it ... so it probably is time to shift it into the extinct category,” he said.

The Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said the potential additions were unsurprising and it “cements Australia’s awful record as a world leader in species loss”.

“Australia’s troubling record is why the community will be coming together on September 10 outside federal parliament to rally against extinction and urge our elected representatives to take stronger action to protect the places and wildlife we love,” she said.

There have been calls from environment groups this year for an overhaul of Australia’s environment laws to stall the rate of species extinction in Australia.

As part of the investigative Our wide brown land series, Guardian Australia has revealed inadequate and misplaced funding for threatened species work, lack of implementation of recovery plans, and failures to register critical habitats.

Labor’s environment spokesman, Tony Burke, said that while the government had been vocal on wanting to improve the trends for threatened species, it had not delivered.

“The game this government has played has been to talk about threatened species, to give someone the title of threatened species commissioner and simultaneously wind back environmental protection every chance the government gets,” he said.

Assessing the mountain mistfrog, as well as the nine mammal species, for extinction under the EPBC act is part of work by the committee to modernise the list so that it better reflects the state of Australia’s record on species conservation.

“It’s a reminder that extinctions have been frequent in Australia,” said Sarah Legge, an associate professor of wildlife ecology with the ANU’s Fenner School of Environment and Society. “The three most recent species are a reminder that the extinctions are not just historical, they’re continuing.”

The assistant environment minister, Melissa Price, said the committee had been going through a process to ensure the EPBC list was current and based on the best available scientific assessment.

“Ensuring the EPBC act list of threatened species is current in regard to these species does not mean Australia’s extinction record is worse than previously thought,” she said.

In the case of the mountain mistfrog, which would be the first amphibian declared extinct on mainland Australia since the EPBC act was introduced, she said it was premature to call the species extinct until the committee gave its advice.

Advice on the frog is due in March next year, while advice on the remaining nine species is due in September this year.