Set up

Say we were studying the bite force of the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

The study species, Sciurus carolinensis. Image by grendel|khan, CC BY-SA 3.0
The study species, Sciurus carolinensis. Image by grendel|khan, CC BY-SA 3.0


Assume that you collected the following data, a table that contains the maximum bite force at the larger, aneteriormost incisor of the lower jaw, mass, and sex of 20 specimens.

Table 1: Bite force data for 20 squirrels. Mass is given in kg, bite force (‘Fmax’) is given in N
mass sex Fmax
0.93 Male 1.8042
1.95 Female 3.0810
1.16 Male 2.1344
1.05 Female 1.5960
1.15 Male 2.2080
0.59 Female 0.8260
0.82 Male 1.5416
0.31 Female 0.4464
0.73 Male 1.3724
1.25 Female 1.7250
1.17 Male 2.3166
2.12 Female 2.8408
0.87 Male 1.7922
0.97 Female 1.3192
1.26 Male 2.6964
0.90 Female 1.2420
0.92 Male 1.7480
0.85 Female 1.3940
0.77 Male 1.6478
1.14 Female 1.6188

Objectives

  1. Open, save, and establish an R markdown document that includes a YAML header with your name, title, date and output as an html [1].

NB: Name and save your Rmd as “Lastname_Firstname_AME0.Rmd” [-1 if not]

  1. Include an R chunk that loads tidyverse [1].

  2. Please download the data you see above by accessing this link. Read it in as CSV data and save it to an object named dat. [3]

  3. Produce an illustrative visualization of the relationship between squirrel maximum bite force and mass and how this relationship may vary by sex. [3]

Interpretation

Please briefly comment on the evolutionary or ecological basis of any relationships your visualization reveals. [2]

Upload

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