Nanostructural and color traits measured in dabbling ducks

Species means calculated from natural logarithms of raw nanostructural and color trait data. Data were collected from museum specimens and analyzed in R. 'Diameter_SD' is the standard deviation of natural-log transformed diameter values

Metadata for the presence of iridescence/eumelanic plumage patches

Metadata for African starling species analyzed regarding the presence of iridescent or eumelanic colors across the 10 body patches of males and females. Non-iridescent, non-eumelanic colors were not included in the analyses

Color data for female African starling species

Species average color variables of measurements from female African starlings. Variables represent the first two Principal Components calculated from the relative quantum catches of the four cones involved in color vision (PC1 and PC2), and brightness (log-transformed average reflectance) for 10 body patches

sample of 500 phylogenetic trees of African starlings

sample of 500 trees from the posterior distribution of phylogenetic trees of the 48 African starling species from the BEAST analysis, with melanosome morphology regimes for color evolution mapped on branches

Color data for male African starling species

Species average color variables of measurements from male African starlings. Variables represent the first two Principal Components calculated from the relative quantum catches of the four cones involved in color vision (PC1 and PC2), and brightness (log-transformed average reflectance) for 10 body patches

Maximum Clade Credibility phyologenetic tree of African starlings

Maximum Clade Credibility tree for the 48 African starling species calculated from the full posterior probability distribution of the BEAST analysis, with melanosome morphology regimes for color evolution mapped on branches

Feather SEM metadata

Image ID, species names, and museum metadata associated with SEM image

Melanosome shape and color measurements

Mean values for melanosome and color traits measured for different palaeognath feather sample

Feather SEM images

Collection of SEM images used for measuring melanosome shape in Palaeognathae. See separate metadata.csv file for species names

data for cuticle evolution

Data on patterns of distribution of eggshell cuticles composed of nanospheres across 296 species of birds in relation to nesting ecology parameters