DOI: 10.5061/dryad.1zcrjdg57
title: Data and code from: Morphological evolution in island birds is associated with more terrestrial lifestyles and a lower number of raptors and intra-family competitors

description: Island biotas experience unique ecological conditions, such as isolation,
 small areas, or simplified communities that promote repeated patterns of
 evolution, like changes in body size, that have been widely studied. By
 contrast, apart from the evolution of flightlessness in birds, changes in
 body shape remain relatively less explored. Here, we explore the effect of
 insularity on the evolution of locomotion-related traits. We used 796
 pairs of endemic island birds and their closest mainland relatives (1170
 species total) to explore the effect of insularity on the evolution of
 locomotion-related traits, specifically wing shape and length, and tarsus
 length. Furthermore, we assessed the effect of the number of raptors and
 intra-family competitors (as the co-occurring species belonging to the
 same family) on these patterns. We found that endemic island birds evolved
 features adapted to a more terrestrial mode of locomotion, characterised
 by rounder wings and longer tarsi compared to their mainland counterparts,
 while we did not observe a reduction in wing length. A lower number of
 raptors and intra-family competitors on islands was associated with
 shorter tarsi, especially in passerines. Wing shape was also affected by
 the loss of migratory behaviour after island colonization. Our results
 show a general pattern of morphological evolution in island birds that
 favours a more terrestrial lifestyle, likely accentuated by the absence of
 predators and reduced competition.
description: # Dryad dataset Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.1zcrjdg57](10.5061/dryad.1zcrjdg57) ## Description of the
 data and file structure **trees_ex.nex** file contains 100
 alternative Ericson tree topologies obtained from Jetz et al. 2012 after
 adding extinct species with AVOTREX function. **morpho_db.csv** file
 contains all the species with morphological data used in the analyses.
 **morpho_db_filtered.csv** file contains only pairs with non-repeated
 mainland species See below for further description: ### Files and
 variables **trees_ex.nex** file contains 100 alternative Ericson tree
 topologies obtained from Jetz et al. 2012 after adding extinct species
 with AVOTREX function. **morpho_db.csv** and **morpho_db_filtered.csv**
 file contains all the morphological data used in the analyses. See below
 for further description: NEW2_sequence: unique number for each species.
 Repeated mainland species have a different number in each pair pairID:
 number of the pair Museum: museum where the morphological measurements
 were collected. NA (not available) correspond to missing information.
 Specimen ID: unique ID number for each specimen (museum information). NA
 (not available) correspond to missing information. Sex: sex (F: Females/
 M: Males). NA (not available) correspond to missing information. species
 name birdlife: species name following Birdlife nomenclature species name
 ebird clements: species name following Clements nomenclature phy_sp: name
 of the species referred in Jetz et al. (2012) phylogeny: BIRDTREE
 avibase.ID: avibase ID IMb: island (1I) or mainland (0M) distribution
 Order: order to which the the species belong to Family: family to which
 the the species belong to Location: species distribution averaged
 predator_richness: number of raptors of suitable mass accross the range of
 the focal species in the island or in the mainland. This number was
 corrected by calculating the number of overlapping cells divided by the
 total cells of the focal species averaged nr_species_same_family: number
 of species belonging to the same family as the focal species in the island
 or in the mainland. This number was corrected by calculating the number of
 overlapping cells divided by the total cells of the focal species latitud:
 latitude Migratory/sedentary: sedentary (0), migratory (1) or partial
 migratory (2) status source_BM: source of body mass information. NA (not
 available) correspond to missing information. InfoBM: body mass
 information obtained, meanB (mean of the whole species), meanF (mean of
 the species for females), meanM (mean of the species for males), specimen
 (body mass of the specimen). NA (not available) correspond to missing
 information. BM: body mass in grams (g). NA (not available) correspond to
 missing information. source_morph: source of morphological traits
 information Tarsus.Length: tarsus length (mm). NA (not available)
 correspond to missing information. Wing.Length: wing length (mm). NA (not
 available) correspond to missing information. Secondary1: wing secondary
 length (mm). NA (not available) correspond to missing information.
 Hand-wing.Index: hand-wing index defined as HWI=100*(WL-SL)/WL, where WL
 is wing length and SL secondary length. NA (not available) correspond to
 missing information. ## Code/software analyses_morpho.R : R code
 **References:** Jetz, W., Thomas, G. H., Joy, J. B., Hartmann, K., &
 Mooers, A. O. (2012). The global diversity of birds in space and time.
 *Nature*, *491*(7424), 444-448.