As a counterattack, however, the newly hatched tailed toads have begun to develop faster. It writes the British-American science media Live Science.
Tobias Wang, professor of zoophysiology at Aarhus University, believes that the study provides a unique insight into how invasive species develop.
– Agatudsen has a low population density in its homeland, South America, and there it is in conflict with other species and not itself. It is, in turn, the one in Australia. Therefore, the rules of the game have been changed, and this leads to the behavioral and developmental changes that have been observed, says Tobias Wang to Videnskab.dk.
The toad typically lays more than 10,000 eggs at a time, and when the eggs hatch, the toads cannot swim or eat yet. So they are basically just lying at the bottom of the lake until they are well developed enough to be able to move around and find food.
This makes them perfect victims for their older tailed toads, who may have been in exactly the same stage just a few days before.
As the lead researcher behind the new scientific study of the toad, Jayna DeVore, Ph.D. in forest resources from the University of Georgia, observed cannibalism for the first time, she noticed how purposefully the agahalet toads chose the newly hatched agahalet toads as food.
This prompted Jayna DeVore and her colleagues to compare the behavior of toads in Australia with their behavior in the countries of origin. Here, they were able to observe that there was a 2.6 times greater risk of newly hatched agahal toads in Australia being eaten by one of its own compared to agahal toads from the original habitats.
The newly hatched, invasive tailed toads from Australia have begun to develop faster than the agate toads from the United States, Central America and South America.
“We found that the agate toads from Australia reached the” invulnerable “tail toad stage in about four days, while the natives spent about five days,” Jayna DeVore told Live Science.
Tobias Wang calls it an arms race and believes that it is particularly worth noting that it has been shown that behavioral and developmental changes can take place so quickly.
– The behavior of the species affects its own development. It is in itself thought-provoking that this arms race takes place within the same species. But it is particularly thought-provoking that it has happened in just 85 years. Usually, evolution has a much longer time horizon, says Tobias Wang.
At the same time, Tobias Wang believes that the study is remarkable because it creates a potential for further exploration of invasive species.
– Evolutionary biology can ultimately be used to explain what it is that makes an invasive species so successful, and that is precisely what is important in a world where invasive species are becoming more common, says Tobias Wang.
Source: The Nordic Page