Toxic toad evolves?

[alan seegert]

Anyone know which toad secretes psychoactive
compounds? Is it B. alvarius? Thanks, Alan.

--- Geoff Read <g.read at NIWA.CO.NZ> wrote:

> An Agence France-Presse slant on a brief
> communication published in Nature
> today.
>
> Invasion and the evolution of speed in toads
> Cane toads seem to have honed their dispersal
> ability to devastating
> effect over the generations.
> Benjamin L. Phillips, Gregory P. Brown, Jonathan K.
> Webb and Richard Shine
> Abstract:
>
http://info.nature.com/cgi-bin24/DM/y/eWxf0BgCJx0Ch0uxb0EG
> Article:
>
http://info.nature.com/cgi-bin24/DM/y/eWxf0BgCJx0Ch0uxc0EH
>
>  Darwin's nightmare: toxic toad evolves to secure
> supremacy
>
> Paris, Feb 15; Agence France-Presse -
>
> Cane toads now have longer legs, which helps them
> spread
> He's fat, ugly and poisonous - and he's mutating.
>
> He's the cane toad (Bufo marinus), a species which
> was introduced into the
> Australian state of Queensland 70 years ago to
> tackle insect pests in
> canefields and has since become an ecological
> catastrophe.
>
> Weighing in at to up two kilos, the unwanted anuran
> has extended its range to
> more than a million square kilometres in tropical
> and sub-tropical Australia,
> crushing native species in its relentless advance.
>
> A team of toad watchers positioned themselves on the
> front line of the
> invasion, 60 kilometres east of the city of Darwin,
> and for 10 months caught
> toads, some of which they radiotagged and let loose
> again.
>
> They were astonished to find that the creatures can
> hop up to 1.8 kms a night
> during wet weather, a record for any frog or toad.
>
> But even more remarkable was the discovery that the
> first toads to arrive at
> the front invariably had longer hind legs than those
> which arrived later.
>
> By comparison, the toads which are living in the
> long-established Queensland
> colonies have much shorter legs.
>
> The case is being seen as a classic example of
> Darwinian evolution - animals
> that are stronger, faster or smarter are able to
> stake out new territory and
> defend it against those that are weaker, slower or
> less astute.
>
> The findings also neatly explain a puzzle
> surrounding the cane toad.
>
> From the 1940s to 1960s, the critter expanded its
> range by only 10 kms a year.
> Today, though, it is advancing at the rate of more
> than 50 kms annually.
>
> The reason: with longer legs, the mutating species
> is able to travel further,
> faster.
>
> The authors, led by Richard Shine from Sydney
> University's School of
> Biological Sciences, say the cane toad is a chilling
> lesson for governments to
> combat invasive species as soon as possible, "before
> the invader has had time
> to evolve into a more dangerous adversary."
>
> ======================
>
> --
>   Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.co.nz>
>   http://www.annelida.net/
>


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