Author of 19 Dryad datasets

• Colour polymorphism in the sea snake Emydocephalus annulatus

  Published Mar 14, 2022. Shine, Richard; Brown, Greg; Goiran, Claire

  Evolutionary theory suggests that polymorphic traits can be maintained within a single population only under specific conditions, such as negative frequency-dependent selection or heterozygote advantage. Non-venomous turtle-headed sea snakes (Emydocephalus annulatus) living in shallow bays near Noumea in New Caledonia exhibit three colour morphs: black, black-and-white banded, and an intermediate...

  Subjects: Biological sciences Elapidae Hydrophiinae

• Population dynamics of the sea snake Emydocephalus annulatus

  Published Oct 25, 2021. Shine, Richard; Brown, Gregory; Goiran, Claire

  For sea snakes as for many types of animals, long-term studies on population biology are rare and hence, we do not understand the degree to which annual variation in population sizes is driven by density-dependent regulation versus by stochastic abiotic factors. We monitored three populations of turtle-headed sea snakes (Emydocephalus...

  Primary article: Shine, Brown, Goiran. (2021) Population dynamics of the sea snake Emydocephalus annulatus (Elapidae, Hydrophiinae). Scientific Reports

• Data on infection experiments of cane toads

  Published Jun 09, 2021. Mayer, Martin; Schlippe Justicia, Lia; Shine, Richard; Brown, Gregory

  This dataset contains data from an infection experiment described in the paper: “Mayer, M., Schlippe Justicia, L, Shine, R., & Brown, G. P. (2021). Host defense or parasite cue: Skin secretions mediate interactions between amphibians and their parasites. Ecology Letters, in revision”.  Amphibian skin secretions (substances produced by the amphibian...

  Subjects: Animal Ecology

• Skin resistance to water gain and loss has changed in cane toads (Rhinella marina) during their Australian invasion

  Published Jan 30, 2021. Brown, Gregory P.; Kosmala, Georgia; Shine, Richard; Christian, Keith

  The water-permeable skin of amphibians renders them highly sensitive to climatic conditions, and interspecific correlations between environmental moisture levels and rates of water exchange across the skin suggest that natural selection adapts hydroregulatory mechanisms to local challenges. How quickly can such mechanisms shift when a species encounters novel moisture regimes?...

• Morphology of parotoid glands in cane toads

  Published Dec 22, 2020. Shine, Richard; Brown, Gregory; Blennerhassett, Ryann; Hudson, Cameron

  If optimal investment in anti-predator defences depends on predation risk, invading new regions (and thus, encountering different predators) may favour shifts in that investment. Cane toads offer an ideal system to test this prediction: expensive anti-predator toxins are stored mainly in parotoid glands whose dimensions are easy to measure, and...

• Sugar crop yield vs cane toads

  Published Sep 23, 2020. Shine, Richard; Ward-Fear, Georgia; Brown, Greg

  In 1935, cane toads (Rhinella marina) were brought to Australia to control insect pests. The devastating ecological impacts of that introduction have attracted extensive research, but the toads’ impact on their original targets has never been evaluated. Our analyses confirm that sugar production did not increase significantly after the anurans...

• Skin morphology in cane toads

  Published Aug 18, 2020. Shine, Richard; Brown, Gregory; Kosmala, Georgia

  The structure of the skin may evolve rapidly during a biological invasion, for two reasons. First, novel abiotic challenges such as hydric conditions may modify selection on traits (such as skin thickness) that determine rates of evaporative water loss. Second, invaders might benefit from enhanced rates of dispersal, with locomotion...

• Colonization history affects heating rates of invasive cane toads

  Published Aug 13, 2020. Brown, Gregory P.; Shine, Richard; Kosmala, Georgia

  Amphibians in hot climates may be able to avoid high temperatures by controlling their rates of heating. In northern Australia, invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) experience hot dry conditions in newly-colonized (western) sites but milder conditions in longer-occupied (eastern) sites. Under standardized conditions, toads from western sites heated less rapidly...

• Niche partitioning within a population of seasnakes is constrained by ambient thermal homogeneity and small prey size

  Published Dec 20, 2019. Shine, Richard; Goiran, Claire; Brown, Gregory

  In many populations of terrestrial snakes, an individual’s phenotype (e.g. body size, sex, colour) affects its habitat use. One cause for that link is gape-limitation, which can result in larger snakes eating prey that are found in different habitats. A second factor involves thermoregulatory opportunities, whereby individuals select habitats based...

  Primary article: Goiran, Brown, Shine. (2020) Niche partitioning within a population of sea snakes is constrained by ambient thermal homogeneity and small prey size. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society