Charles Darwin proposed that competition would lower the success of species invasions if an ecosystem contained closely related species. But he may have been wrong, at least where amphibians are concerned. Members of this class are more likely to successfully establish themselves in new environments when they are related to species already resident there.

Reid Tingley and his colleagues at the University of Sydney, Australia, analysed data on 521 successful and failed introductions of 162 amphibian species. They found that the chances of successful invasion rose as the richness of related species grew.

The results could aid conservation efforts by helping to predict whether introduced species will be successful in establishing themselves.

Am. Nat. doi:10.1086/658342 (2011)