DOI: 10.5061/dryad.qz612jmsr
title: Did complex song and dance co-evolve with brain size in the Birds of Paradise (Aves: Paradisaeidae)?

description: Complex signalling behaviors, such as avian song and courtship displays,
 have been associated with increases in both absolute and relative
 brain size, presumably mediated by relationships between brain
 size and motor coordination and learning abilities. Nonetheless,
 reliably establishing these relationships is challenging due
 to the difficulty of quantifying behavioral complexity. Birds of
 paradise perform some of the most elaborate avian courtship
 displays, involving a striking degree of complexity and motor
 coordination, which makes them interesting models for investigating
 the evolution of complex motor learning abilities in birds. Here,
 we compiled a μCT-based brain size dataset of more than half of
 the known species of birds of paradise and used multiple metrics
 of display complexity to test the hypothesis that larger brains
 are associated with more elaborate repertoires of motor and vocal
 displays. We found no clear evidence that the complexity of
 courtship display behaviors co-evolved with brain size among the
 birds of paradise: this conclusion held across three kinds of
 behavioral and two kinds of vocal complexity scores.
description: # Did complex song and dance co-evolve with brain size in the Birds of
 Paradise (Aves: Paradisaeidae)? Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.qz612jmsr](10.5061/dryad.qz612jmsr) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Data for this project is based on previously
 published behavioural and vocal complexity scores (see methods in paper)
 and an endocranial volume dataset collected for this project based on
 micro-CT scanned museum specimens.  ### Files and variables Empty cells in
 the data are simply missing values (NAs) where we couldn’t obtain a
 measurement, either from the literature (for complexity scores and body
 size data) or for brain size measurements (our data). #### File:
 diagnostic\_fcns.r **Description:** Roger Mundry's linear model
 diagnostic functions. #### File: influ\_phylm2\_Paterno\_et\_al.R
 **Description:** PGLS model diagnostics (see methods of manuscript)  ####
 File: Ligon.et.al.\_UltrametricTree **Description:** Bird-of-paradise
 phylogeny  #### File: plot\_influ\_phylm2\_Paterno\_et\_al.R
 **Description:** PGLS model diagnostics (see methods of manuscript)  ####
 File: ParadisaeidaeBrains\_Markdown.Rmd **Description:** Full code
 required to reproduce analyses #### File:
 summary\_influ\_phylm2\_Paterno\_et\_al.R **Description:** PGLS model
 diagnostics (see methods of manuscript)  #### File:
 Paradisaeidae\_Brain.Data.csv **Description:** Bird-of-paradise brain data
 ##### Variables * species: Species name * species_number: Species number
 ID * sample.size: Replicates per species * ECV: Endocranial volume (mm^3) 
 * skull.length: Cranial length (cm)  * body.mass: Body mass (g)  *
 tarsus.length: Tarsus length (mm)  * complexity.fuxjager: Behavioural
 complexity score (see method)  * behavioral.richness.ligon: Behavioural
 complexity score (see method)  * behavioral.diversity.ligon: Behavioural
 complexity score (see method)  * acoustic.richness.ligon: Acoustic
 complexity score (see method)  * acoustic.diversity.ligon: Acoustic
 complexity score (see method)  * mating.system: Mating system/clade  ####
 File: Paradisaeidae\_Brain.Data.Full.csv **Description:** Full
 Bird-of-paradise complexity and brain size dataset  ##### Variables *
 species: Species name * Genus : Genus * species.short: Species
 abbreviation  * ECV: Endocranial volume (mm^3)  *
 complexity.fuxjager: Behavioural complexity score (see method)  *
 behavioral.richness.ligon: Behavioural complexity score (see method)  *
 behavioral.diversity.ligon: Behavioural complexity score (see method)  *
 acoustic.richness: Acoustic complexity score (see method)  *
 acoustic.diversity: Acoustic complexity score (see method)  *
 mating.system: Mating system/clade  * bodymass.frith.g: Body mass (g)  *
 tarsus.frith.mm: Tarsus length (mm)  #### File:
 Paradisaeidae\_Brain.Samples.csv **Description:** Individual specimen
 measurements ##### Variables * SPECIES: Species name * ID: Specimen ID *
 ECV: Endocranial volume (mm^3)  * skull.length: Cranial length (cm)  *
 mating.system: Mating system/clade  ## Code/software The available code
 was written in R Markdown and can be reproduced in the RStudio coding
 environment. All custom functions required to reproduce our results are
 available in the supplementary documents.  ## Access information Other
 publicly accessible locations of the data: * GitHub
 : [https://github.com/ThomasMac1998/brain-evolution-Paradisaeidae](https://github.com/ThomasMac1998/brain-evolution-Paradisaeidae) Data was derived from the following sources: * Scans of Bird-of-paradise museum skull specimens; Ligon et al. (2018), Miles & Fuxjager (2018) (see methods).