- Joined
- Jul 7, 2005
- Messages
- 3,203
Steve Nunn has said in other threads that rat skulls are a common find in the burrows of some species of tarantula.It's actually one of the best foods, and one of the few vertebrates they ACTUALY eat in the wild. While I still search for wild pics of a T eating a rodent, images of T's eating frogs in the wild abund.
My theory is that they enter the spider's burrow looking for something to eat and are then overpowered.
There is no need for evolution to take massive amounts of time. Often, single mutations can cause animals to become immune to new sources of toxins in their environment...similar to how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.aussie Ts eat cane toads and arent native to the same place cane toads are since the cane toad iw an introduced species to Australia
And please dont try to tell me that they evolved to eat the cane toads because that contradicts the evolutionary need for huge periods of time. according to evolutionary theory as i under stand it , cane toads havent been in australia long enough for predators to evolve to eat it and thats why they are so invasive. The Australian Ts must be able to eat them fopr some other reason than they evolved to be able to.
There are many, many examples of how insects have acquired immunity to pesticides like organophosphates and DDT.
Here's a good article about how a single mutation can save an entire species.
In fact some of the snakes in Australia have changed their body type to allow them to dine on the toxic toads...narrower throat means smaller frogs are eaten, and in turn less bufotoxin ingested. Bigger body, the more bufotoxin it takes to harm the snake.
Cane toads themselves have undergone considerable changes in the 70 years or so they've been there; growing much longer and stronger legs.
Theodosius Dobzhansky created entire new species of fruit flies in his lab through artificial selection...many, many times.