Diet and chemical defenses of the Sonoran Desert toads

The Sonoran Desert Toad (Incilius alvarius) is the only animal known to secrete the psychedelic compound 5-MeO-DMT as a chemical defense, but the source of 5-MeO-DMT in I. alvarius remains unknown. Some amphibians produce chemical defenses endogenously or through symbiotic interactions, while others acquire them from specialized diets. In this study, we analyzed toxin gland secretions and diet profiles from wild I. alvarius and sympatric anurans from native and urban habitats around Tucson, Arizona, to explore possible links between diet and 5-MeO-DMT production. All I. alvarius secreted high concentrations of 5-MeO-DMT, whereas other sympatric toads did not. The diet of I. alvarius was similar to that of sympatric anurans, indicating that I. alvarius does not exhibit relative dietary specialization. Slight dietary differences between I. alvarius in native and urbanized habitats were observed. Taken together, these lines of evidence suggest that diet is not directly linked to 5-MeO-DMT ..., , # Data from: Diet and chemical defenses of the Sonoran Desert toads

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t71](10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t71)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains the raw anuran diet data and corresponding code for analyses associated with the PLOS One article by Luccioni et al. 2025, \"Diet and chemical defenses of the Sonoran Desert toads.\" Processed diet data and raw and processed Direct Analysis in Real Time Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry (DART-TOF-MS) data are presented within the manuscript or included as supplemental material. 

### Files and variables

#### File: Luccioni_et_al._2025_Anuran_Stomach_Content_Photos.zip

**Description:** All anuran stomach content photos. Names are in the format \"number_letter_number,\" in which the first number corresponds to the unique identifier for the anuran from which contents were sampled (\"ID\" in the associated CSV), the letter combined with the first number is a unique identifier for each individual ...,