Australian Cane Toads are so crowded they’ve started eating each other! Cannibalism is not uncommon in Biology, but scientists rarely get to observe the evolution of cannibalism in action. In this video, Dr. Jayme Dyer explains a recently published Cool Paper that describes how cannibalism is evolving in Australian Cane Toads and the ramifications for Cane Toad development as baby Cane Toads evolve to avoid being eaten.

This primary literature article this paper is based on is:
J. L. DeVore, M. R. Crossland, R. Shine, S. Ducatez, The evolution of targeted cannibalism and cannibal-induced defenses in invasive populations of cane toads. PNAS 118 (2021). https://doi.org/ 10.1073/pnas.2100765118

Image and video credits
Cane Toad photo by Amada44 CC-BY 2.0
Map of earth modified from Convention on Biological Diversity2.svg by L.tak CC-BY SA 3.0
Photo of Jayna DeVore by Jayna DeVore, used with permission
Video of tadpoles eating hatchlings by Jayna DeVore, used with permission

This video is copyright Jayme Dyer 2021, published under the Creative Commons CC-BY SA 4.0 license.

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