Data from: Locomotor mode and the evolution of the hindlimb in Western Mediterranean Anurans

The evolutionary association between morphology, locomotor performance and habitat use is a central element of the ecomorphological paradigm, and it is known to underlie the evolution of phenotypic diversity in numerous animal taxa. In anuran amphibians the hindlimb acts as the propulsive agent, and as such, it is directly associated with jumping performance. In this study we combine individual- and species-level analyses to examine the effects of locomotor mode on body size and hindlimb morphology of Western Mediterranean anurans. In addition to the commonly studied hindlimb traits, we also examine the ratio between tibiofibula and femur length. Body size shows no signs of an evolutionary association to locomotor mode. Instead, hindlimb traits are significantly differentiated between locomotor groups, both at the individual and species levels. Specifically, we observe a gradient of tibiofibula to femur ratio values that matches biomechanical predictions. The analysis of adult static allometries indicates that these differences arise early in ontogeny. By comparing the fit of distinct evolutionary models we provide evidence that the locomotor mode adopted by each species to match the requirements of the habitat it frequents has shaped the evolution of the hindlimb, but not body size.WM_anurans_phylogenyThe file "WM_anurans.nex" contains the phylogeny hypothesis employed in Nexus format. We used the tree of Roelants et al. 2007 as a time-scaled reference to calibrate the phylogeny of all amphibians (Pyron and Wiens 2011) using the function congruify.phylo (Eastman et al. 2013) of geiger R-package (Harmon et al. 2008). We then trimmed the ultrametric phylogeny obtained to match the list of taxa studied.WM_anurans.nexWM_anurans_traitsThe file "WM_anurans_traits.csv" is a comma-delimited file that contains the trait values analysed in Enriquez-Urzelai et al. 2015. These consist of raw measurements for each individual included in the study. 'SPECIES' column corresponds to the species scientific name, 'SP' column contains the species abbreviated name, 'SVL' snout-vent length, 'TFL' tibiofibula length, 'FL' femur length, 'T.F' tibiofibula to femur ratio, 'LOC' the mode of displacement. We also provide the collection number, the entrance number, and the collection name. Here is the key for modes of displacement (LOC): JT = Jumper terrestrial JA = Jumper arboreal WH = Walker/hopper BWH = Burrower/walker/hopperREAD_MEInformation about the provided data file