Set 1 of 2 Collections of Measurements Relating to the Evolution of Brain Size in Water Birds

Brief description

The data set collects brain size estimates in as many species of Anseriformes as possible to investigate the evolution of brain size in the group by using a comparative approach. Both wild and captive specimens were examined. The skeletal measurements were recorded in the Excel file, including several data fields such as brain cavity volume, average femur least diameter / circumference, average tibiotarsus least diameter / circumference, and average tarsus least diameter / circumference. The data collection was started in Nov 2003 and is still ongoing. The dataset 1 contains more than 1500 data records, some of which have been published in the related journals.

This research was supported by funding from Victoria University Fellowship, the Department of Zoology and the Faculty of Science of the University of Melbourne, the David Hay Scholarship, le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies, the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, the Field Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. The following institutions offered access to their collection and/or logistical help: The Auckland Museum, the Australian Museum, the Bird group of the Natural History Museum at Tring, the Bishop Museum, the Canadian Museum of Nature, the Canterbury Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Australian National Wildlife Collection, the Department of Ornithology of the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Florida Museum of Natural History, the McGill University Redpath Museum, le Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, the University of California Berkeley, Museum Victoria, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Ornithology Department of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, the Queensland Museum, the Royal Alberta Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the South Australian Museum, the University of Alaska Museum, the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, the University of Washington Burke Museum, the Western Australian Museum, the Yale University Peabody Museum and the Zoology Museum of the University of Copenhagen.
Project Organization Unit: Institute for Sustainability and Innovation (ISI), Victoria University

Notes

Number of items: 1500 data records