10.5061/DRYAD.1ZCRJDFQ7
Thomas, Kate N.
0000-0003-2712-2481
Natural History Museum
Gower, David J.
0000-0002-1725-8863
Natural History Museum
Bell, Rayna C.
0000-0002-0123-8833
National Museum of Natural History
Fujita, Matthew K.
The University of Texas at Arlington
Schott, Ryan K.
0000-0002-4015-3955
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
Streicher, Jeffrey W.
0000-0002-3738-4162
Natural History Museum
Eye size and investment in frogs and toads correlate with adult habitat,
activity pattern and breeding ecology
Dryad
dataset
2020
FOS: Biological sciences
Natural Environment Research Council
https://ror.org/02b5d8509
NE/R002150/1
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DEB-#1655751
Division of Environmental Biology
https://ror.org/03g87he71
DEB-#1655751
2020-09-24T00:00:00Z
2020-09-24T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1393
656860 bytes
5
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Frogs and toads (Amphibia: Anura) display diverse ecologies and
behaviours, which are often correlated with visual capacity in other
vertebrates. Additionally, anurans exhibit a broad range of relative eye
sizes, which have not previously been linked to ecological factors in this
group. We measured relative investment in eye size and corneal size for
220 species of anurans representing all 55 currently recognized families
and tested whether they were correlated with six natural history traits
hypothesized to be associated with the evolution of eye size. Anuran eye
size was significantly correlated with habitat, with notable decreases in
eye investment among fossorial, subfossorial and aquatic species. Relative
eye size was also associated with mating habitat and activity pattern.
Compared to other vertebrates, anurans have relatively large eyes for
their body size, indicating that vision is probably of high importance.
Our study reveals the role that ecology and behaviour may have played in
the evolution of anuran visual systems and highlights the usefulness of
museum specimens, and importance of broad taxonomic sampling, for
interpreting macroecological patterns.
Here we include three anuran datasets and one vertebrate dataset in
support of the above work investigating eye-body allometry and relative
eye size across anurans: 1) a set of morphological data gathered from
preserved anuran museum specimens, 2) a set of morphological data
collected from fresh anuran specimens, 3) a set of ecological traits and
source references for the anuran species in our study, and 4) a set of
morphological data compiled from published work on vertebrate eye size.
The latter two datasets were supported by published materials, and
references for each are posted in an associated pdf file. Details on the
collection of these data can be found in the associated manuscript (DOI:
10.1098/rspb.2020.1393), and all code for analyzing these datasets and
producing figures from the manuscript is available on GitHub:
https://github.com/knthomas/anuran-eye-size. Explanations of each data
file follow.
Thomas_museum_specimens.csv This file includes taxonomic and morphological
data for 640 museum specimens of frogs and toads (anurans). Measurements
were made by Kate Thomas and David Gower and taxonomic identifications
were confirmed by Jeffrey Streicher. Below is a guide to columns; in all
columns, “NA” indicates a blank cell/no data. Order: Taxonomic order
according to Frost (2020); this dataset is all anurans Suborder: Taxonomic
suborder according to Feng et al. (2017a) Family: Taxonomic family
according to Frost (2020) Subfamily: Taxonomic subfamily according to
Frost (2020) Genus: Taxonomic genus according to Frost (2020) Species:
Taxonomic species according to Frost (2020) genus_species: Binomial
generated from the previous two columns (Genus_Species) Feng_tiplabel:
Phylogeny tip label name for matching species data exactly to the Feng et
al. (2017b) phylogeny mod_tiplabel: Phylogeny tip label names for matching
species data to exact matches and to close relatives (see associated
manuscript for details) in the Feng et al. (2017b) phylogeny Museum:
Collection housing each specimen measured here. NHM = the Natural History
Museum (London, UK); NCSM = North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
(Raleigh, NC, USA); BNHS = the Bombay Natural History Society (Mumbai,
India). SpecimenNumber = Catalog identification number for each specimen
Sex = Sex of specimen, if identified Stage = Life stage of specimen; this
dataset includes only adult anurans SVL_mm = Snout-vent length of specimen
in mm Mass_g = Wet mass of specimen in g ED_right_mm = Transverse right
eye diameter of specimen in mm ED_left_mm = Transverse left eye diameter
of specimen in mm CD_right_mm = Transverse right cornea diameter in mm
CD_left_mm = Transverse left cornea diameter in mm Measured_by = Collector
of morphological measurements (4 specimens of Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis
measured by David Gower, all other specimens measured by Kate Thomas)
Thomas_fresh_specimens.csv This file includes taxonomic and morphological
data for 67 fresh (unpreserved) specimens of frogs and toads (anurans).
Live anurans were obtained through fieldwork in French Guiana (permit RAA:
R03-2018-06-12-006) and via collection in the UK or the pet trade (NHM
license NE: WML-OR04). Measurements were made by Jeffrey Streicher, David
Gower, and Kate Thomas. Taxonomic identifications were made by Jeffrey
Streicher and David Gower. All specimens were preserved after eye
dissection and added to museum collections. Note that for these specimens,
eye measurements were taken from only one eye (left or right, not
tracked), as the other eye was destructively sampled for other research.
Below is a guide to columns; in all columns, “NA” indicates a blank
cell/no data. Source: Source of live specimens and date of collection
Field_number: Field number assigned to each specimen prior to museum
accession Museum: Museum collection now housing each specimen (note that
these specimens have not yet been given catalog numbers, but can still be
traced by their field numbers). NHM = Natural History Museum (London, UK)
Order: Taxonomic order according to Frost (2020); this dataset is all
anurans Family: Taxonomic family according to Frost (2020) Subfamily:
Taxonomic subfamily according to Frost (2020) Genus: Taxonomic genus
according to Frost (2020) Species: Taxonomic species according to Frost
(2020) Stage = Life stage of specimen; this dataset includes only adult
anurans SVL_mm = Snout-vent length of specimen in mm Mass_g = Wet mass of
specimen in g ED_mm_insitu = Transverse eye diameter measured externally
(prior to dissection) in mm CD_mm_insitu = Transverse cornea diameter
measured externally (prior to dissection) in mm ED_mm_dissected =
Transverse eye diameter measured after removal of whole eye from specimen
(in mm) CD_mm_dissected = Transverse corneal diameter measured after
removal of whole eye from specimen (in mm) AD_mm_dissected = Axial length
of eye measured after removal of whole eye from specimen (in mm)
LD_mm_dissected = Maximum diameter of lens measured after dissection out
of eye in mm (note that these data were not included in the associated
study, but are included here in case useful to other researchers)
Thomas_species_traits.csv This file includes ecological trait data for 220
anuran species and references that categorizations were based on. See
associated manuscript for details of ecological categorizations. Full
citations for references supporting this dataset are available in the
"Species_traits_references.pdf" file; in-text citations are
indicated for each trait in an associated reference column. All coauthors
participated in the assignment of ecological traits. Below is a guide to
columns; in all columns, “NA” indicates a blank cell/no information
found. Order: Taxonomic order according to Frost (2020); this dataset is
all anurans Family: Taxonomic family according to Frost (2020) Subfamily:
Taxonomic subfamily according to Frost (2020) Genus: Taxonomic genus
according to Frost (2020) Species: Taxonomic species according to Frost
(2020) Feng_tiplabel: tip label name for matching species data exactly to
the Feng et al. (2017b) phylogeny Common_name: One or more common names
linked to each species (not comprehensive) Adult_habitat: Habitat where
adult activity primarily occurs (semiaquatic, aquatic, scansorial,
ground-dwelling, subfossorial, or fossorial) AH_source: Reference for
adult habitat Activity_period: Period when adult activity primarily occurs
(diurnal, nocturnal, or both) AP_source: Reference for activity period
Mating_habitat: Habitat where mating behaviors primarily occur (lotic
water, lentic water, plants, or ground) MH_source: Reference for mating
habitat Life_history: Presence or absence of a free-living larval stage
(free-living larvae or no free-living larvae) LH_source: Reference for
life history Larval_habitat: Habitat where larvae are primarily active (no
larvae, lotic water, lentic water, on land, or obscured) LHab_source:
Reference for larval habitat Sex_dichromatism: Whether males and females
exhibit differences in colors or patterns (present or absent) SD_source:
Reference for sexual dichromatism Thomas_vertebrates.csv This file
includes data on eye size and body size from 1285 species or specimens
complied from 9 published studies (Howland et al. 2004; Werner and Seifan
2006; Lisney and Collin 2007; Hall 2008; Hall and Heesy 2011; Schmitz and
Wainwright 2011; Liu et al. 2012; Schmitz et al. 2013; Veilleux and Kirk
2014). These data were then matched to phylogenies retrieved from
VertLife.org (mammals: Upham et al. 2019; birds: Jetz et al. 2012;
squamates: Tonini et al. 2016; sharks: Stein et al. 2018) and
TimeTree.org (fishes: Kumar et al. 2017) (see our associated manuscript
for details), and this dataset includes columns for name matching between
morphological datasets and phylogenies. Full citations for both data and
phylogenies are listed in "Vertebrates_references.pdf". Please
see our associated manuscript for full details. Below is a guide to
columns; in all columns, “NA” indicates a lack of data. Dataset_name:
Genus and species names as in original datasets extracted from published
papers Common_name: Common name from original datasets extracted from
published papers (if included originally) Group: Broad clade descriptions
of vertebrates included in analyses (birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles,
sharks/rays) along with more specific high-level taxonomic ranks Subgroup:
Common names for the taxonomic rank divisions we grouped by in analyses
given the distribution of taxa we had available (ranks are not the same
among clades) Subclade: Taxonomic names for the taxonomic rank divisions
we grouped by in analyses given the distribution of taxa we had available
(ranks are not the same among clades) Body_mass_kg: Body mass in kg. If
original dataset was in a different unit of mass, it has been converted to
kg here. Axial_diameter_mm: Axial length of the eye in mm SVL_mm:
Snout-vent length in mm (applies only to reptiles and amphibians)
Trans_diameter_mm: Transverse diameter of the eye in mm
Cornea_diameter_mm: Transverse diameter of the cornea in mm Reference:
Citation for source of morphological data (see full citations in
"Vertebrates_references.pdf") VertLife_name: Phylogeny tip
labels from VertLife trees that match each species from the morphology
dataset (if names are different, this is due to species synonyms or
changes in taxonomy). See full citations for phylogeny sources in
"Vertebrates_references.pdf" VertLife_basetree: Phylogeny from
VertLife that applies to each row of the dataset (matches tree names on
VertLife) TimeTree_tiplabel: Phylogeny tip labels from TimeTree (used only
for Actinopterygii) that match each species from the morphology dataset
(if names are different, this is due to species synonyms or changes in
taxonomy). “NA” indicates that the morphology dataset species was not
available in a TimeTree phylogeny. For full reference for TimeTree, see
"Vertebrates_references.pdf" TimeTree_genus_sub: Tip labels from
TimeTree (used only for Actinopterygii) that match each species from the
morphology dataset at the genus level (but not the species level). These
genus-level substitutions were used to approximate the phylogenetic
position of species that were not available as direct matches in the
phylogeny for analyses.