Supplementary Table 2. Braincase measurements compared to body masses in the Ardeidae and outgrouptaxa. W – postorbital width (between the postorbital processes), D – depth (between the basitemporal plate and the frontal vault in the midline). Body masses are mean values from Dunning (2008)*.
Species / Specimen / W / D / BM / Wx D / BMratio
Ixobrychusminutus / IPEE 2553 / 16.6 / 14.1 / 118 / 1.96
Ixobrychusminutus / IPEE 1567 / 16.5 / 13.8
Ixobrychuseurhythmus / IPEE 1606 / 18.1 / 15.5 / 139 / 2.0
Ardeolaralloides / PIN 20-29-2 / 19.3 / 16.9 / 287 / 1.14
Egrettagarzetta / IPEE 1252 / 22.0 / 18.9 / 312 / 1.3
Egrettagarzetta / IPEE 2205 / 21.4 / 19.2
Egrettathula / PIN 20-23-1 / 23.1 / 19.6 / 371 / 1.22
Egretta ibis / PIN 20-20-1 / 23.2 / 20 / 372 / 1.24
Scopusumbretta / privatecoll. / 28.6 / 24.0 / 472 / 1.45
Egrettarufescens / PIN 20-14-1 / 30.3 / 23.5 / 614 / 1.16
Cochleariuscochlearius / PIN 21-8-1 / 33.6 / 26.3 / 597-693 / 1.3-1.5
Nycticoraxnycticorax / IPEE 873 / 34.1 / 25.4 / 810 / 1.06
Nycticoraxnycticorax / IPEE 2380 / 33.7 / 25.2
Tigrisomalineatum / PIN 22-3-1 / 31.7 / 26.2 / 813 / 1.02
Eudocimusalbus / privatecoll. / 26.9 / 27.5 / 900 / 0.82
Ardea alba / IPEE 18931 / 27.6 / 24.2 / 935 / 0.7
Ardea alba / IPEE 1249 / 27.5 / 24.7
Botaurusstellaris, ♂ / IPEE 1648 / 28.2 / 23.8 / 1209 / 0.56
Botaurusstellaris, ♂ / IPEE 2472 / 29.2 / 24.2 / 0.59
Ardeacinerea / IPEE 1678 / 32.5 / 26.3 / 1443 / 0.63
Ardeacinerea / IPEE 1072 / 35.3 / 27.2
Ardeacinerea / IPEE 1849 / 33.0 / 27.1
Ardeacinerea / privatecoll. / 34.1 / 27.0
Ciconianigra / privatecoll. / 41.7 / 35.0 / 2926 / 0.5
Ciconiaciconia / privatecoll. / 44.4 / 35.0 / 3571 / 0.44
* Dunning, J. B. 2008. CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses. 2nd ed. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 655 pp.