Alignments, data tables, and trees used for analysesThis repository accompanies the manuscript "Social mating system, body mass, and molecular evolution interact to predict diversification in birds" The data used for statistical analyses are contained in the genera.data.tables.and.trees.Rdata file, and can be loaded into R using the load function. Once the data have been loaded. The following data frame elements will be found: datmit354trans contains the data with molecular rates estimated from mitochondrial loci. datnuc173trans contains the data with molecular rates estimated from nuclear loci. datmix363 contains data of only three variables for the combination of genera for which any type of molecular data were included in other analyses. tr173, tr352, and tr363 contain maximum clade credibility trees used for the main phylogenetic regression analyses. tr173.100 and tr352.100 contain the sample of posterior trees from Jetz et al. (2012) used for performing replicate phylogenetic regression analyses. The file linear.model.summaries.100trees.Rdata contains the summaries of the 100 replicate phylogenetic regressions performed for each of the 14 models examined in the study. The names of each of the models corresponds to the names used in the supplementary infromation tables. This repository also includes the sequence alignments used for estimating molecular rates, and the species-specific data set of mating system and mass from which genus-level values were calculated. For enquiries contact: Maider Iglesias (miglesias15@gmail.com) or David A. Duchene (david.duchene@sydney.edu.au)bird_sexual_selection-master.zip

Sexual selection is a powerful agent of evolution, driving microevolutionary changes in the genome and macroevolutionary rates of lineage diversification. The mechanisms by which sexual selection might influence macroevolution remain poorly understood. For example, sexual selection might drive positive selection for key adaptations that facilitate diversification. Furthermore, sexual selection might be a general driver of molecular evolutionary rate. We lay out some of the potential mechanisms that create a link between sexual selection and diversification, based on causal effects on other life-history traits such as body mass and the rate of molecular evolution. Birds are ideally suited for testing the importance of these relationships because of their diverse reproductive systems and the multiple evolutionary radiations that have produced their astounding modern diversity. We show that sexual selection (measured as the degree of polygyny) interacts with the rate of molecular evolution and with body mass to predict species richness at the genus level. A high degree of polygyny and rapid molecular evolution are positively associated with the net rate of diversification, with the two factors being especially important for explaining diversification in large-bodied taxa. Our findings further suggest that mutation rates underpin some of the macroevolutionary effects of sexual selection. We synthesize the existing theory on sexual selection as a force for diversity and propose avenues for exploring this association using genome data.