Data from: The evolution of morphological diversity in continental assemblages of Passerine birds

Understanding geographic variation in the species richness and lineage composition of regional biotas is a long standing goal in ecology. Why do some evolutionary lineages proliferate while others do not? Is precedence important? How do new colonisers fit into an established fauna? Here, we analyse the morphological structure of assemblages of passerine birds in four biogeographic regions to examine the relative influence of colonization history and niche-based processes on regional communities of passerine birds. Using morphological traits related to habitat choice, foraging technique and movement, we quantify the morphological volumes occupied by different groups of passerine birds and morphological differences between groups. We quantify morphological overlap by using both multivariate discriminant analysis and comparison with null distributions. Finally, we use disparity through time to assess the temporal component of morphological evolution. We find no support for the prediction based on priority that first colonisers constrain subsequent colonisers, nor do we find evidence that subsequent colonisers proliferate at the expense of first colonisers. Taken together, our results show that the assembly of regional communities is highly idiosyncratic with regards to the diversification of new clades and the filling of morphospace.