Last data update: 2014.03.03

 R: Carnivora body sizes and life history traits
carnivoraR Documentation

Carnivora body sizes and life history traits

Description

Dataset adapted from Gittleman (1986), including 2 morphological variables (body and brain sizes), 8 life history traits variables and 4 taxonomic variables.

Usage

data(carnivora)

Format

A data frame with 112 observations on 17 variables.

[,1] Order factor Carnivora order
[,2] SuperFamily factor Super family (Caniformia or Feliformia)
[,3] Family factor Carnivora family
[,4] Genus factor Carnivora genus
[,5] Species factor Carnivora species
[,6] FW numeric Female body weight (kg)
[,7] SW numeric Average body weight of adult male and adult female (kg)
[,8] FB numeric Female brain weight (g)
[,9] SB numeric Average brain weight of adult male and adult female (g)
[,10] LS numeric Litter size
[,11] GL numeric Gestation length (days)
[,12] BW numeric Birth weigth (g)
[,13] WA numeric Weaning age (days)
[,14] AI numeric Age of independance (days)
[,15] LY numeric Longevity (months)
[,16] AM numeric Age of sexual maturity (days)
[,17] IB numeric Inter-birth interval (months)

Source

Gittleman, J. L. (1986) Carnivore life history patterns: allometric, phylogenetic and ecological associations. American Naturalist, 127: 744–771.

Examples

  data(carnivora);
  # This is figure 1 of Gittleman 1986:
  library(lattice)
  trellis.device(color=FALSE)
  xyplot(BW ~ FW, groups=Family, data=carnivora, auto.key=TRUE, xlog=TRUE,
      scale=list(log=TRUE), ylim=c(1, 2000))
  trellis.device(color=FALSE)
  xyplot(BW ~ FB, groups=Family, data=carnivora, auto.key=TRUE, xlog=TRUE,
      scale=list(log=TRUE), ylim=c(1, 2000))

Results


Created & Maintained by Osamu Ogasawara (osamu.ogasawara@gmail.com) and IMSBIO