The common toad was first given the name Rana bufo by the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758.[3] In this work, he placed all the frogs and toads in the single genusRana. It later became apparent that this genus should be subdivided, and in 1768, the Austrian naturalistJosephus Nicolaus Laurenti placed the common toad in the genus Bufo, naming it Bufo bufo.[4][5] The toads in this genus are included in the family Bufonidae, the true toads.[2]

Various subspecies of Bufo bufo have been recognized over the years. The Caucasian toad is found in the mountainous regions of the Caucasus and was at one time classified as Bufo bufo verrucosissima. It has a larger genome and differs from Bufo bufo morphologically [6] and is now accepted as Bufo verrucosissimus.[7] The spiny toad was classified as Bufo bufo spinosus. It is found in the Mediterranean area and grows to a larger size and has a spinier skin than its more northern counterparts with which itintergrades.[8] It is now accepted as Bufo spinosus.[9] The Gredos toad, Bufo bufo gredosicola, is restricted to the Sierra de Gredos, a mountain range in central Spain. It has exceptionally large paratoid glands and its colour tends to be blotched rather than uniform.[10] It is now considered to be a synonym of Bufo bufo.[2]

Bufo bufo is part of a species complex, a group of closely related species which cannot be clearly demarcated.[1] Several modern species are believed to form an ancient group of related taxafrom preglacial times. These are the spiny toad (Bufo spinosus), the Caucasian toad (Bufo verrucosissimus) and the Japanese common toad (Bufo japonicus). The European common toad (Bufo bufo) seems to have arisen more recently.[6] It is believed that the range of the ancestral form extended into Asia but that isolation between an eastern and western type occurred as a result of greater aridity and desertification in the Middle East during the Middle Miocene.[11] The exact taxonomic relationships between these species remains unclear.[6] A serological investigation into toad populations in Turkey undertaken in 2001 examined the blood serum proteins of Bufo verrucosissimus and Bufo spinosus. It found that the differences between the two were so significant that therefore the former should be synonymized with the latter.[12]

A study published in 2012 examined the phylogenetic relationships between the Eurasian and North African species in the Bufo bufo group and indicated a long evolutionary history for the group. Nine to thirteen million years ago, Bufo eichwaldi, a recently described species from south Azerbaijan and Iran, split from the main lineage. Further divisions occurred with Bufo spinosus splitting off about five million years ago when the Pyrenees were being uplifted, an event which isolated the populations in the Iberian Peninsula from those in the rest of Europe. The remaining European lineage split into Bufo bufoand Bufo verrucosissimus less than three million years ago during the Pleistocene.[13]

Very occasionally the common toad hybridizes with the natterjack toad (Bufo calamita) or the European green toad (Bufo viridis).[14]

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