NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Cane Toad
Rhinella marina (Linnaeus, 1758)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The cane toad (Rhinella marina), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America, but which has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean, as well as Northern Australia. It is a member of the genus Rhinella, which includes many true toad species found throughout Central and South America, but it was formerly assigned to the genus Bufo. A fossil toad (specimen UCMP 41159) from the La Venta fauna of the late Miocene in Colombia is morphologically indistinguishable from modern cane toads from northern South America. It was discovered in a floodplain deposit, which suggests the R. marina habitat preferences have long been for open areas. The cane toad is a prolific breeder; females lay single-clump spawns with thousands of eggs. Its reproductive success is partly because of opportunistic feeding: it has a diet, unusual among anurans, of both dead and living matter.
Wikipedia contributors, Cane toad; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T01:48:46.498293+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Rhinella marina (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Name authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Common name
- Cane Toad
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Amphibia
- Order
- Anura
- Family
- Bufonidae
- Genus
- Rhinella
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAmphibia
- orderAnura
- familyBufonidae Gray, 1825
- genusRhinella Fitzinger, 1826
- speciesRhinella marina (Linnaeus, 1758)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Rhinella. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Rhinella alata (Thominot, 1884) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella arenarum (Hensel, 1867) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella arunco (Molina, 1782) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella azarai (Gallardo, 1965) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella beebei (Gallardo, 1965) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella centralis Narvaes & Rodrigues, 2009 | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella cerradensis Maciel, Brandão, Campos & Sebben, 2007 | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella chavin (Lehr, Köhler, Aguilar & Ponce, 2001) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella diptycha (Cope, 1862) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella dorbignyi (Duméril & Bibron, 1841) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella festae (Peracca, 1904) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Rhinella fissipes (Boulenger, 1903) | BufonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=773729 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:4S7NY. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.