Tuesday, November 30, 2004

"Open Not-So-Wide!"

ABC News Australia has a story about the observed adaptations in Australian snake species following the introduction of the cane toad (Bufo marinus) to the continent. Cane toads are poisonous, and the inability of snakes to recognize this has lead to selection for snakes with smaller head to body size ratios (larger relative head size --> eating larger toads --> too much poison for body size --> death). The research was just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - read the abstract or download a paper (.pdf) of related research by the same authors.

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