Relationships of body size and physiology to painted turtle forelimb stripe coloration

In this research, we investigated the hypothesis that physiological health influences painted turtle forelimb stripe coloration using a suite of physiological traits, including measures of baseline stress and both innate and adaptive immune function. This dataset includes raw photographs (.CR2) of painted turtles, multispectral images produced using micaToolbox (.mspec), Excel and .csv spreadsheets containing raw physiology assay results and color analysis results, and R code used for statistical analysis of color and physiology measures. Permits for painted turtle collection at the TCRA were provided by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (SUP 32576-021), and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (NH11.0073). This research was approved by ISU IACUC (12-03-5570-J). All applicable national and state laws and guidelines were followed with respect to collection and care of turtles and performance of all physiology measures.