Kate E. Jones, Jon Bielby, Marcel Cardillo, Susanne A. Fritz, Justin O'Dell, C. David L. Orme, Kamran Safi, Wes Sechrest, Elizabeth H. Boakes, Chris Carbone, Christina Connolly, Michael J. Cutts, Janine K. Foster, Richard Grenyer, Michael Habib, Christopher A. Plaster, Samantha A. Price, Elizabeth A. Rigby, Janna Rist, Amber Teacher, Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emonds, John L. Gittleman, Georgina M. Mace, and Andy Purvis. 2009. PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90:2648.


Data Paper

Ecological Archives E090-184-D1.

Copyright


Authors
Data Files
Abstract
Metadata


Author(s)

Kate E. Jones
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom
E-mail: [email protected]

Jon Bielby
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom

Marcel Cardillo
Division of Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom
Current address: Centre for Macroevolution & Macroecology
School of Botany and Zoology
Australian National University
Canberra 0200, Australia

Susanne A. Fritz
Division of Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom

Justin O'Dell
Department of Biology
Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4328 USA

C. David L. Orme
Division of Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom

Kamran Safi
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom

Wes Sechrest
Department of Biology
Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4328 USA

Elizabeth H. Boakes
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom
Current address: Centre for Population Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom

Chris Carbone
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom

Christina Connolly
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom

Michael J. Cutts
Division of Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom

Janine K. Foster
Division of Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom

Richard Grenyer
Division of Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom
Current address: Centre for Population Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom

Michael Habib
Department of Biology
Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4328 USA
Current address: Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
1830 E. Monument Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205 USA

Christopher A. Plaster
Division of Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom
Current address: Department of Biology
University College London
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT UNited Kingdom

Samantha A. Price
Department of Biology
Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4328 USA
Current address: NESCent: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
2024 W. Main Street, Suite A200, Durham, North Carolina 27705 USA

Elizabeth A. Rigby
Department of Biology
Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4328 USA
Current address: Department of Natural Resources Management
Texas Tech University
Box 42125 Lubbock, Texas 79409-2125 USA

Janna Rist
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom

Amber Teacher
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom

Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emonds
AG Systematik und Evolutionsbiologie
Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
26111 Oldenburg, Germany

John L. Gittleman
Department of Biology
Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4328 USA
Current address: Odum School of Ecology
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia 22902 USA

Georgina M. Mace
Institute of Zoology
Zoological Society of London
Regents Park, London NW1 4RY United Kingdom
Current address: Centre for Population Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom

Andy Purvis
Division of Biology
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus
Ascot, SL5 7PY United Kingdom
Current address: Centre for Population Biology
Imperial College London
Silwood Park Campus
Ascot SL5 7PY United Kingdom


Data Files

PanTHERIA_1-0_WR93_Aug2008.txt -- 4629 records, not including the header row, ASCII text, tab-delimited, no compression scheme was used.

PanTHERIA_1-0_WR05_Aug2008.txt -- 5416 records, not including the header row, ASCII text, tab-delimited, no compression scheme was used.


Abstract

Analyses of life history, ecological, and geographic trait differences among species, their causes, correlates, and likely consequences are increasingly important for understanding and conserving biodiversity in the face of rapid global change. Assembling multispecies trait data from diverse literature sources into a single comprehensive data set requires detailed consideration of methods to reliably compile data for particular species, and to derive single estimates from multiple sources based on different techniques and definitions. Here we describe PanTHERIA — a species-level data set compiled for analysis of life history, ecology, and geography of all known extant and recently extinct mammals. PanTHERIA is derived from a database capable of holding multiple geo-referenced values for variables within a species containing 100740 lines of biological data for extant and recently extinct mammalian species, collected over a period of three years by 20 individuals. PanTHERIA also includes spatial databases of mammalian geographic ranges and global climatic and anthropogenic variables. Here we detail how the data fields are extracted and defined for PanTHERIA using a customized data input format MammalForm; how data were collected from the literature, species names and sources tracked, error-checking and validation procedures applied, and how data were consolidated into species-level values for each variable. Tables of the consolidated species-level values are made available for each of two recent species-level taxonomic classifications of mammals, as well as associated taxonomic synonymy conversion and data-input files. This study provides a useful guide to prospective researchers on how to structure and codify life history, ecological, geographic, and taxonomic data and methods to extract meaningful species-level traits. It also provides comprehensive information on traits like size, diet, environmental conditions, and ecology to permit macroecological and macroevolutionary analyses of this important clade.

Key words: behavior; biogeography; body size; climatic variables; comparative analyses; conservation; ecology; geographic range; life history; mammals; PanTHERIA; population density.


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