Phenotypic diversity facilitates niche partitioning in a sky island assemblage of spiny lizards

If closely-related species should be more similar and, therefore, more likely to compete for resources, why do we see so many examples of species-rich congeneric communities in nature? To avoid competition, many species possess suites of traits associated with differential resource use—or ecomorphologies—that promote niche differentiation with co-occurring species. Yet, the axes through which niche partitioning evolves and the traits involved are still poorly understood in most systems. Island systems, in which species interactions can form strong forces of selection due to limited resources, provide valuable insights into how ecomorphological diversity contributes to coexistence. Here, we examined axes of resource use and morphological traits that facilitate niche partitioning in a community of spiny lizards (genus Sceloporus) in a sky island system, the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. By quantifying structural, temporal, and thermal niche use for over 300 co-occurring li..., , , # Data from: Phenotypic diversity facilitates niche partitioning in a sky island assemblage of spiny lizards

Dataset DOI: [10.6078/D1WH9X](10.6078/D1WH9X)

## Description of the data and file structure

Morphology and ecological data for individual Sceloporus lizards in Westeen et al. BJLS 2023. Lizards were caught in the field and aspects of their resource use and morphological measures were taken

### Files and variables

#### File: Westeen-2023-nicheData.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* Information for each lizard including:
* location (name of site)
* time: time of first sighting of lizard
* substrate given as a categorical variable (e.g., rock, log)
* perch height in meters
* lizard temperature (C) measured with an infrared temperature gun pressed to the lizard's cloaca
* substrate temperature (C) measured with an infrared temperature gun
* sex as determined in the field by examination of post-anal scales (male, female, or juvenile when sex cannot be determined due to li...,