DOI: 10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1f1
title: Data from: Sex and morph differences in age‐dependent trait changes in a polymorphic songbird

description: There is growing evidence of important variation in how animals age, in
 particular in how the expression of traits changes with age among
 different species and populations.  However, less is known about
 variation within populations, which may include variation in ageing
 patterns between different types of individuals (e.g., sexes or distinct
 polymorphisms) and between different types of traits (e.g., general traits
 versus those used in social signalling contexts). We used six years of
 longitudinal data to examine age-related changes in trait expression in a
 captive population of Gouldian finches (Erythrura gouldiae), a socially
 monogamous songbird with genetically determined colour morphs that differ
 in behaviour and physiology. We contrasted ageing patterns of different
 types of traits (social signalling versus size-related) in both sexes and
 in two colour morphs, using a mixed model approach to account for both
 within- and between-individual effects. We found pronounced sex
 differences in how social signalling traits change with age, showing a
 quadratic pattern in males, but not changing with age in females. In
 contrast, we observed no sex-specific ageing patterns in size traits. We
 also found subtle morph differences in how size-related traits changed
 with age, with black morphs stable or increasing with age, while red
 morphs showed a decline with age. Finally, we found interesting sex by
 morph interactions in the measures iofone important social signal
 (headband width). These results highlight the importance of using
 within-individual approaches to understand ageing patterns across types of
 individuals (sex, morph, etc.) and the need for further research on the
 ageing patterns of traits that experience different selective pressures.
description: # Data from: Sex and morph differences in age‐dependent trait changes in a
 polymorphic songbird Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1f1](10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1f1) ## Description of the
 data and file structure This paper was based on longitudinal data,
 including several morphological traits from seven years of a large,
 captive population of Gouldian finches (*Erythrura gouldiae*) that were
 part of a series of research projects.  ### Files and variables #### File:
 GouldianAgeDryad.csv **Description:** raw data used for analysis -
 contains every measurement for each individual. Missing values denoted
 with NAs ##### Variables * ID - band number - unique identifier *
 XGenotype - the colour genotype - important for head colour -  * LastAge -
 age at last banding * AgeSQ - age squared for quadratic effects * Date -
 date measured * Year - year measured * PSex - phenotypic sex * PMorph -
 phenotypic head morph * Tarsus - length of tarsus in mm * Beak - length of
 beak in mm * Wing - length of wing in mm * TAIL - length of tail in mm *
 Mass - mass in grams * Headband - width of headband blue colour in mm *
 HByn - binomial yes/no for headband presence * Hue - measure of colour of
 headband * Chroma - measure of colour of headband * Compatible - whether
 parents were compatible vs incompatible colour morphs * ISO - whether
 birds were housed in isolation during breeding * Diet - whether bird
 experienced a specific diet * Implant - whether birds experienced a
 hormone implant.  * Diet: AQ - average quality diet * Diet:LQ - low
 quality diet ## Code/software Any program (text editor or Microsoft Excel)
 that reads .csv can view data.  All analyses and figure generation (except
 Figure 1) were completed in R (3.6.3) using the following packages:
 AICcmodavg (Mazerolle 2020), lme4 (Bates et al. 2014), effects (Fox
 2018), ggdist (Kay 2021), and ggplot2 (Wickham 2016).