220 Toxic Toads A Tale of Two Species

Herpetological Highlights

The Asian common toad (aka Asian black-spined toad, Asian toad, black-spectacled toad) is a remarkably successful species, living alongside humans and colonising new lands. A new study suggests there might be more than meets the eye, with the toads being more than one species. We finish with a newly described tiny species of chameleon from Madagascar.

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Main Paper References:

Dufresnes C, Jablonski D, Ambu J, Prasad VK, Bala Gautam K, Kamei RG, Mahony S, Hofmann S, Masroor R, Alard B, Crottini A, Edmonds D, Ohler A, Jiang J, Khatiwada JR, Gupta SK, Borzée A, Borkin LJ, Skorinov DV, Melnikov DA, Milto KD, Konstantinov EL, Künzel S, Suchan T, Arkhipov DV, Trofimets AV, Nguyen TV, Suwannapoom C, Litvinchuk SN, Poyarkov NA. 2025. Speciation and historical invasions of the Asian black-spined toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus). Nature Communications 16. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54933-4.

Species of the Bi-Week:

Rakotoarison A, Hasiniaina AF, Glaw F, Vences M. 2024. A new miniaturized species of leaf chameleon, genus Brookesia, from a littoral forest fragment in eastern Madagascar. Zootaxa 5506:533–547. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5506.4.3.

Other Mentioned Papers/Studies:

Vázquez Torres S, Benard Valle M, Mackessy SP, Menzies SK, Casewell NR, Ahmadi S, Burlet NJ, Muratspahić E, Sappington I, Overath MD, Rivera-de-Torre E, Ledergerber J, Laustsen AH, Boddum K, Bera AK, Kang A, Brackenbrough E, Cardoso IA, Crittenden EP, Edge RJ, Decarreau J, Ragotte RJ, Pillai AS, Abedi M, Han HL, Gerben SR, Murray A, Skotheim R, Stuart L, Stewart L, Fryer TJA, Jenkins TP, Baker D. 2025. De novo designed proteins neutralize lethal snake venom toxins. Nature:1–7. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08393-x.

Other Links/Mentions:

Callaway E. 2025. AI-designed proteins tackle century-old problem — making snake antivenoms. Nature 637:776–776. DOI: 10.1038/d41586-025-00133-z.

Editing and Music:

Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson

Species Bi-week theme – Michael Timothy

Other Music – The Passion HiFi, https://www.thepassionhifi.com

Intro visuals – Paul Snelling