10.5061/DRYAD.F5DF5NK
Shi, Jeff J.
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Minnesota
Westeen, Erin P.
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Rabosky, Daniel L.
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Data from: Digitizing extant bat diversity: an open-access repository of
3D μCT-scanned skulls for research and education
Dryad
dataset
2019
uCT
Skull
Holocene
Chiroptera
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DEB-1501304
2019-08-20T00:00:00Z
2019-08-20T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203022
25483 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Biological specimens are primary records of organismal ecology and
history. As such, museum collections are invaluable repositories for
testing ecological and evolutionary hypotheses across the tree of life.
Digitizing and broadly sharing the phenotypic data from these collections
serves to expand the traditional reach of museums, enabling widespread
data sharing, collaboration, and education at an unprecedented scale. In
recent years, μCT-scanning has been adopted as one way for efficiently
digitizing museum specimens. Here, we describe a large repository of 3D,
μCT-scanned images and surfaces of skulls from 359 extant species of bats,
a highly diverse clade of modern vertebrates. This digital repository
spans much of the taxonomic, biogeographic, and morphological diversity
present across bats. All data have been published to the MorphoSource
platform, an online database explicitly designed for the archiving of 3D
morphological data. We demonstrate one potential use of this repository by
testing for convergence in skull shape among one particularly diverse
group of bats, the superfamily Noctilionoidea. Beyond its intrinsic
utility to bat biologists, our digital specimens represent a resource for
educators and for any researchers seeking to broadly test theories of
trait evolution, functional ecology, and community assembly.
Landmark data for convergence testsLandmark data for bat crania used to
test for convergence among major trophic guilds.landmarks.zip
Global