Morphological traits and spatial utilization in tadpoles: a correlational approach

This repository contains the data and R scripts used to reproduce the analyses and figures from the study on the relationship between morphology, foraging depth, food consumption, and growth-related performance in benthic and benthic-neustonic tadpoles. The dataset includes two experimental components. Experiment 1 evaluated food consumption across three foraging-depth treatments — Bottom, Middle, and Surface — in tadpoles of Leptodactylus podicipinus, Physalaemus cuvieri, and Physalaemus nattereri. Experiment 2 evaluated food consumption, growth-related responses, apparent feed conversion efficiency, and feeding time per visit in tadpoles of Rhinella diptycha, Physalaemus cuvieri, and Physalaemus nattereri when food was available at a single tested depth. The repository includes raw data files, metadata describing all variables, and fully documented R scripts for data processing, calculation of morphometric proportions, model fitting, post hoc comparisons, and figure generation. Morphological data include direct traits measured from tadpole images — body width, body height, dorsal fin height, ventral fin height, and tail muscle height — as well as morphometric proportions including BW/BH, DFH/TMH, and VFH/TMH. These files are provided to facilitate transparency, reproducibility, and reuse of the data and analytical workflow.