Question

The long-established toads represent an older population of toads in Australia. They are being taken over by a current invasion of Fogg Dam toads. These toads have longer legs and are very active at night. Use the evidence in the data to explain how differential survival and reproduction is occurring in this population, and predict how this current invasion would affect the population.

Answer 1

Differential survival indicates that a particular advantageous trait is benefiting a species, allowing the species to survive and produce more offspring. In the case of the Fogg Dam toad, it is evident that they are highly invasive as a species because they have the beneficial traits of long legs and the ability to move both during the day and at night. They also move much faster per day than the established toads in this area. The species passed along these traits to their offspring, giving their babies the ability to run even faster to continue to survive the invasion.