Title: Interacting impacts of invasive plants and invasive toads on native lizards
Abstract: The ecological impacts of an invasive species may be reduced by prior invasions, if selective pressures imposed by earlier events pre-adapt the native biota to deal with the newer arrival. In northwestern Australia, invasion of the cane toad (Rhinella marina) kills many native predators if they ingest the highly toxic toads. Remarkably, the toads' defensive toxins (bufadienolides) are chemically similar to those of another invasive species: an ornamental plant from Madagascar, Bryophyllum spp. (Crassulaceae, mother-of-millions). Omnivorous lizards (bluetongue skinks, Tiliqua scincoides) are imperiled by toad invasion in northwestern Australia, but conspecifics from other areas of the continent (those where exotic plants were introduced, and including areas where toads have yet to invade) are less affected because they exhibit higher physiological tolerance of toad toxins (and also, of plant toxins). [Price-Rees S, Brown GP, Shine R (2011) Data from: Interacting impacts of invasive plants and invasive toads on native lizards. The American Naturalist, Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.7b2kg107]