Data for: Sex-specific ornament evolution is a consistent feature of climatic adaptation across space and time in dragonflies

Adaptation to different climates fuels the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. Detailing how organisms optimize fitness for their local climate is therefore an essential goal in biology. Although we increasingly understand how survival-related traits evolve as organisms adapt to climatic conditions, it is unclear if organisms also optimize traits that coordinate mating between the sexes. Here, we show that dragonflies consistently adapt to warmer climates across space and time by evolving less male melanin ornamentation—a mating-related trait that also absorbs solar radiation and heats individuals above ambient temperatures. Continent-wide macroevolutionary analyses reveal that species inhabiting warmer climates evolve less male ornamentation. Community-science observations across ten species indicate that populations adapt to warmer parts of species’ ranges through microevolution of smaller male ornaments. Observations from 2005-2019 detail that contemporary selective pressures op...