DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sb307mm
title: Data from: Comparing life histories across taxonomic groups in multiple dimensions: how mammal-like are insects?

description: Explaining variation in life histories remains a major challenge because
 they are multi-dimensional and there are many competing explanatory
 theories and paradigms. An influential concept in life history theory is
 the 'fast-slow continuum', exemplified by mammals. Determining
 the utility of such concepts across taxonomic groups requires comparison
 of the groups' life histories in multidimensional space. Insects
 display enormous species richness and phenotypic diversity, but testing
 hypotheses like the 'fast-slow continuum' has been inhibited by
 incomplete trait data. We use phylogenetic imputation to generate complete
 datasets of seven life history traits in orthopterans (grasshoppers and
 crickets) and examine the robustness of these imputations for our
 findings. Three phylogenetic principal components explain 83-96% of
 variation in these data. We find consistent evidence of an axis mostly
 following expectations of a 'fast-slow continuum', except that
 'slow' species produce larger, not smaller, clutches of eggs. We
 show that the principal axes of variation in orthopterans and reptiles are
 mutually explanatory, as are those of mammals and birds. Essentially,
 trait covariation in Orthoptera, with 'slow' species producing
 larger clutches, is more reptile-like than mammal-or-bird-like. We
 conclude that the 'fast-slow continuum' is less pronounced in
 Orthoptera than in birds and mammals, reducing the universal relevance of
 this pattern, and the theories that predict it.
description: Referenced
 DatasetExcel file (.xlsx)
 containing the dataset of Orthopteran life history traits
 ("Data" tab), and numbered references ("References"
 tab).Dataset_Refs.xlsxOrthoptera dataset (plain text)Plain text version of the Orthoptera dataset, used for statistical analyses. The references are listed in the Excel spreadsheet.orthoptera_dataset.txtMammal DatasetMammal life history data used in the analyses across taxonomic groups. Collated from: Capellini et al, 2015; Jeschke and Kokko, 2009; Myhrvold et al., 2015 [see text].Mammal_FINAL.csvBird DatasetBird life history data used in the analyses across taxonomic groups. Collated from: de Magalhães and Costa, 2009; Jeschke and Kokko, 2009, Lislevand et al., 2007; Myhrvold et al., 2015 [see text].Bird_FINAL.csvReptile DatasetReptile life history data used in the analyses across taxonomic groups. Collated from: Allen et al., 2017; Myhrvold et al., 2015 [see text].Reptile_FINAL.csvOrthoptera SupertreeOrthoptera supertree used to impute missing species data and for phylogenetically constrained analyses. Based on Davis et al., 2018 (doi: 10.1101/392712)OrthopteraST.treesPhylogeny for analyses across taxonomic groupsPhylogeny covering orthopterans, mammals, birds and reptiles. For node dates separating groups and construction procedure please refer to Appendix A (Supplementary Methods).MORB_Phylogeny.treCode: The fast-slow continuum hypothesis in OrthopteraR code for analyses within Orthoptera, including: PGLS analyses, imputation of missing data (at various levels of completeness), and phylogenetic PCAs.PCA_Orthoptera.RCode: Analyses across taxonomic groupsR code for analyses in the second section of the results, including: phylogenetic PCA across taxonomic groups, and non-phylogenetic PCA's and calculations comparing the shared variance explained by the different taxonomic groups.PCA_Across-Groups.R