This is the data package for D'Emic MD, Benson RBJ. Scaling, variation, and measurements of osteocyte lacunae: a case study in birds. The folder Images contains images of histological sections with lacuna axis measurements shown. The folder names "Input data" contains: (1) "Bird trees.tre.txt" The phylogenetic tree without (not used) and with (used) branch lengths in Newick format. (2) "Bird_parameters.txt" Various parameters for bird taxa. -"Name_in_tree" the name of the bird taxon in our tree (Bird trees.tre.txt) -"taxon" the species binomen of the bird taxon -"common_name" the vernacular name of the bird taxon -"gender" the gender of the specimen we used for osteocyte data, if known -"femur_length" the length of the femur in millimetres -"midshaft_femur_trv" the mediolateral width of the femur at midshaft -"Growth_Rate_K" the species-specific growth rate in K (1/day) from Starck & Ricklefs 1998 -"starkrickBodyMass" the species-specific body mass from Starck & Ricklefs (1998) in grams (not used in our study) -"BEST_BODY_MASS" the species-specific body mass from Dunning (2007) in grams (used in our study) -"STD_DEVbest_body_mass" standard deviation of the above -"CRC_speciesappropsexAVG" average species mass for the sex of the individual that was thin sectioned, from Dunning (2007), in grams -"Resting_met_rate_from_Ricklefs_(W)" resting metabolic rate in watts, from Starck & Ricklefs 1998 (not used in our study) -"BMR_McKechnie04" the basal metabolic rate from McKechnie and Wolf (2004), in watts -"RBC_dry_area" dry erythrocyte (red blood cell) area from www.genomesize.com/cellsize, in square microns -"Genome_Size" species-specific genome size from www.genomesize.com (3) "Human_ilium.txt" Human ilium osteocyte volume and axis data from McCreadie et al. (2004). We used columns 'x', 'y' and 'z', which correspond to axis measurements (4) "Measurements.txt" Our osteocyte lacuna axis measurements. -"Filename1", "Filename2", "Filename3" names of the image files showing histological sections with measurements burned in (see Images folder) -"Name_in_tree" the name of the bird taxon in our tree (Bird trees.tre.txt) -"Species" the species binomen of the bird taxon -"Specimen" the specimen number of the sectioned bone from which the measurement was taken -"Element" the element sectioned -"Orientation" the orientation of the section plane, either 'longitudinal' or transverse ('xs') -"Anterior_or_posterior" the location of the measurement relative to the medullary cavity of the bone -"Lacuna" an index number given to each measurement within each section -"Angle" the angle of the measurement - these are not comparable among sections or bones -"Axis" the axis of the lacuna measurement, either 'long' or 'short' axis of the lacuna -"Axis_code" 1=long, 0=short -"Diameter" the measurement of the lacuna axis in micrometers (5) "Dinosaur measurements.txt" Our osteocyte lacuna axis measurements for dinosaurs, with the same column headings as described for "Measurements.txt" (6) "R Script FINAL.txt" Our annotated R Script (R Core Team 2012) The folder names "Output data" contains: (1) "Axis data FINAL" Summary of avian lacuna axis measurements, osteocyte volume and surface area estimates for each specimen -"Name_in_tree" the name of the bird taxon in our tree (Bird trees.tre.txt) -"Element" the element sectioned -"total_n" the number of lacuna axes measured for each specimen -"long_long" the mean of long axis measurements from the longitudinal histological section -"long_long_sd" the standard deviation of long axis measurements from the longitudinal histological section -"n1" the number of measurements contributing to "long_long" -"long_short" the mean of short axis measurements from the longitudinal histological section (not used) -"long_short_sd" the standard deviation of short axis measurements from the longitudinal histological section -"n2" the number of measurements contributing to "long_short" -"xs_long" the mean of long axis measurements from the transverse (='xs') histological section -"xs_long_sd" the standard deviation of long axis measurements from the transverse (='xs') histological section -"n3" the number of measurements contributing to "xs_long" -"xs_short" the mean of short axis measurements from the transverse (='xs') histological section -"xs_short_sd" the standard deviation of short axis measurements from the transverse (='xs') histological section -"n4" the number of measurements contributing to "xs_short" -"both_short" the mean of short axis measurements from both longitudinal and transverse (='xs') histological sections (not used) -"n5" the number of measurements contributing to "both_short" -"scalene_volume" osteocyte volume estimate assuming scalene dimensions, calculated from "long_long", "xs_long" and "xs_short" -"scalene_volume_sd" bootstrapped standard deviation of "scalene_volume" -"prolate_volume" osteocyte volume estimate assuming prolate dimensions, calculated from "xs_long" and "xs_short" -"prolate_volume_sd" bootstrapped standard deviation of "prolate_volume" -"scalene_SA" osteocyte surface area estimate assuming scalene dimensions, calculated from "long_long", "xs_long" and "xs_short" (not used) -"scalene_SA_sd" bootstrapped standard deviation of "scalene_SA" -"prolate_SA" osteocyte surface area estimate assuming prolate dimensions, calculated from "xs_long" and "xs_short" -"prolate_SA_sd" bootstrapped standard deviation of "prolate_SA" (2) "Dinosaur volumes" Summary of lacuna axis measurements, osteocyte volume and surface area estimates for each dinosaur specimen, with the same column headings used in "Axis data FINAL" (3) "DATA_final" Data compilation table including columns from "Axis data FINAL" (for femora only) and "Bird_parameters.txt" (4) "pRESULTS_final" Summary of regression model fits for prolate osteocyte volume estimates (5) "sRESULTS_final" Summary of regression model fits for scalene osteocyte volume estimates (6) "TREE_final" tree with branch lengths References: Dunning JB (2007) CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses. Boca Raton: CRC Press McCreadie BR, Hollister SJ, Schaffler MB, Goldstein SA (2004) Osteocyte lacuna size and shape in women with and without osteoporotic fractures. J Biomech 37, 563Ð572. McKechnie and Wolf (2004) The allometry of avian basal metabolic rate: good predictions need good data. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 77, 502Ð521. R Core Team (2012) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL http://www.R-project.org/. Starck JM, Ricklefs RE (1998) Patterns of development: The Altricial-Precocial Spectrum. In: Avian Growth and Development (eds Starck JM, Ricklefs RE), pp. 3Ð26. Oxford: England.