Adaptive radiation is the rapid diversification of a single lineage into many species that inhabit a variety of environments or use a variety of resources and differ in traits required to exploit these. Why some lineages undergo adaptive radiation is not well-understood, but filling unoccupied ecological space appears to be a common feature. We construct a complete, dated, species-level phylogeny of the endemic Vangidae of Madagascar. This passerine bird radiation represents a classic, but poorly known, avian adaptive radiation. Our results reveal an initial rapid increase in evolutionary lineages and diversification in morphospace after colonizing Madagascar in the late Oligocene some 25 Mya. A subsequent key innovation involving unique bill morphology was associated with a second increase in diversification rates about 10 Mya. The volume of morphospace occupied by contemporary Madagascan vangas is in many aspects as large (shape variation)-or even larger (size variation)-as that of other better-known avian adaptive radiations, including the much younger Galapagos Darwin's finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers. Morphological space bears a close relationship to diet, substrate use, and foraging movements, and thus our results demonstrate the great extent of the evolutionary diversification of the Madagascan vangas.daptive radiation is the rapid diversification of a single lineage into many species that inhabit a variety of environments or niches and differ in the morphological and/or physiological traits required to exploit these environments (1-4). Well-known examples of adaptive radiations include Galapagos finches (5), Hawaiian honeycreepers (6), Hawaiian lobeliads (7), and Caribbean anoles (8). Although evolutionary biologists do not understand why some lineages undergo adaptive radiation and others do not, ecological opportunity appears to be a common feature. Opportunity might arise as a new food resource, a mass extinction of competitors and/or predators, and the colonization of new land or environments (4, 9, 10). Adaptive radiation is ultimately the outcome of divergent natural selection arising from occupation of different environments, use of different resources, or resource competition (4). The progressive filling of ecological space, and the accompanying decrease in ecological opportunity, is expected to result in a decrease in rates of diversification and morphological evolution over time (11,12).The bird family Vangidae (15 genera, 22 species) is endemic to Madagascar and considered an extraordinary example of adaptive radiation. This is due particularly to the wide range of foraging strategies as well as to the evolution of striking differences in bill morphology that have allowed vangid species to exploit diverse foraging niches (13,14). However, the evolutionary history of the group remains poorly understood. Previous systematic analyses have not included all members of the group (15)(16)(17), and these studies have not investigated morphological traits in a comparative phylogenetic framework, pre...

Recent works have suggested an analytical complementarity in mixing big and thick data sources. These works have, however, remained as programmatic suggestions, leaving us with limited methodological inputs on how to archive such complementary integration. This article responds to this limitation by proposing a method for 'blending' big and thick analytical insights. The paper first develops a methodological framework based on the cognitivist linguistics terminology of 'blending'. Two cases are then explored in which blended spaces are crafted from engaging big and thick analytical insights with each other. Through these examples, we learn how blending processes should be conducted as a rapid, iterative and collaborative effort with respect for individual expertise. Further, we demonstrate how the unique, but often overlooked, granularity of big data plays a key role in affording the blending with thick data. We conclude by suggesting four commonly appearing blending strategies that can be applied when relying upon big and thick data sources.

The era of 'big data' studies and computational social science has recently given rise to a number of realignments within and beyond the social sciences, where otherwise distinct data formats-digital, numerical, ethnographic, visual, etc.-rub off and emerge from one another in new ways. This article chronicles the collaboration between a team of anthropologists and sociologists, who worked together for one week in an experimental attempt to combine 'big' transactional and 'small' ethnographic data formats. Our collaboration is part of a larger cross-disciplinary project carried out at the Danish Technical University (DTU), where high-resolution transactional data from smartphones allows for recordings of social networks amongst a freshman class (N ¼ 800). With a parallel deployment of ethnographic fieldwork among the DTU students, this research setup raises a number of questions concerning how to assemble disparate 'data-worlds' and to what epistemological and political effects? To address these questions, a specific social event-a lively student party-was singled out from the broader DTU dataset. Our experimental collaboration used recordings of Bluetooth signals between students' phones to visualize the ebb and flow of social intensities at the DTU party, juxtaposing these with ethnographic field-notes on shifting party atmospheres. Tracing and reflecting on the process of combining heterogeneous data, the article offers a concrete case of how a 'stitching together' of digital and ethnographic data-worlds might take place.