Data from: Sex and morph differences in age‐dependent trait changes in a polymorphic songbird
Data files
Jan 22, 2026 version files 461.52 KB
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GouldianAgeDryad.csv
459.62 KB
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README.md
1.89 KB
Abstract
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.
Dataset DOI: 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).
- Cain, Kristal E.; Griffith, Simon C.; Kruuk, Loeske E. B. (2021). Sex and morph differences in age‐dependent trait changes in a polymorphic songbird. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13930
