Figure legends
Figure 1;
Phylogenetic tree of the 53 bird species for which adult and chick
telomere length (TL) and telomere length rate of change (TROC) were
collected from published papers on avian telomeres using the TRF
methodology. The consensus phylogenetic tree was obtained from
BirdTree.org (100 trees) using ape, apTreeshape and caper R packages
(see ESM 4).
Figure 2:
Effect sizes (Rho values) and 95% confidence intervals for phylogenetic
effects on bird TL variables (Adult telomere length (Adult TL), telomere
length rate of change (TROC) and chick telomere length (Chick TL), and
the three principal component axes that reflected bird species’ life
history traits (PCA 1 - body size , PCA 2 - slow-fast
continuum of the pace of life and PCA 3 - post-fledging
parental care ). Effects are considered significant when not overlapping
zero.
Figure 3:
Adult telomere length (TL, in kb) in relation to life-history axes PC1
(A), PC2 (B) and PC3 (C). Note that none of the relationships turned out
to be significant. (Table 2). Dashed lines refer to Pearson’s linear
correlation (PC1, r = -0.23; PC2, r = 0.15; PC3, r = 0.04, Table 2).
Symbols indicates the distribution of the 13 bird orders. Note that two
unadjusted correlations reached significance for Adult TL / PC2:
Procellariiformes, r = -0.75, t = -2.18, p = 0.031, n = 8;
Passeriformes, r = 0.69, t = 3.32, p = 0.006, n = 14.
Figure 4:
Telomere length rate of change (TROC, in kb / year) in relation to
life-history axes PC1 (A), PC2 (B) and PC3 (C). Only THE TROC and PC2
relationship was statistically significant (Table 2). Dashed
(non-significant) and plain (significant) lines refer to unadjusted for
phylogeny Pearson’s linear correlation (PC1, r = 0.34; PC2, r = -0.54;
PC3, r = 0.12, Table 2). Symbols indicates the distribution of the 13
bird orders. Note that all unadjusted correlations reached significance
for the Procellariiformes, n = 7; PC1: r = -0.95, t = -6.97, p
< 0.001; PC2: r = -0.92, t = -5.06, p = 0.004; PC3: r = -0.79,
t = -2.86, p = 0.035.
Figure 5:
Chick telomere length (TL, in kb) in relation to life-history axes PC1
(A), PC2 (B) and PC3 (C). Note that none of the relationships turned out
to be significant (Table 2). Dashed lines refer to unadjusted for
phylogeny Pearson’s linear correlation (n = 29; PC1, r = -0.20; PC2, r =
0.05; PC3, r = -0.01, Table 2). Symbols indicates the distribution of
the 13 bird orders.
Figure 6:
Frequency distributions of phylogenetic (A ) and residual
(B ) correlation values produced by the iterations of the
multivariate linear models using Monte Carlo methods and Bayesian Markov
Chain sampling (MCMC) between TROC and life-history axes of
bird life history traits, i.e. PC1 (body size, left
panels), PC2 (pace of life, middle panels) and PC3(parental care, right panels). This multivariate model controlled for
shared ancestry simultaneously for all variables. Red lines indicate the
peak values reported in Table 2 (two last right columns).