The Eastern American Toad, Anaxyrus americanus americanus (Holbrook, 1836) is an ubiquitous and geographically wide-ranging subspecies of eastern North America. As such, it also varies geographically in several of its life history traits. A statewide examination of its gonadal cycles and body size-age relationships in Pennsylvania revealed a conformity to contemporary latitudinal patterns associated with these life history traits. Likewise, these very responses to spatial differences in climate, we proffer, predispose the Eastern American Toad to climate-change related shifts in timing of reproduction in Pennsylvania. Such a change, depending upon the reproductive response to climate change by Fowler's Toad, Anaxyrus fowleri (Hinckley, 1882), could result in an increased likelihood of hybridization, a phenomenon with significant evolutionary implications.
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3 June 2022
Gonadal Cycles and Growth to Sexual Maturity of the Eastern American Toad, Anaxyrus americanus americanus (Holbrook, 1836), from Pennsylvania
Walter E. Meshaka Jr,
William S. Humbert,
Pablo R. Delis,
Eugene Wingert
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Annals of Carnegie Museum
Vol. 87 • No. 3
June 2022
Vol. 87 • No. 3
June 2022
amphibian
anuran
climate change
Eastern American Toad
gonadal cycles
hybridization