Data and code from: Evolution and drivers of long-distance vocal communication in mammals

Long-distance communication is important for life history processes in many species. A long-standing debate exists about the type of evolutionary history and environmental drivers that have shaped the propagation of animal sounds. We compare the maximal propagation distance of calls for 103 mammalian species using comparative analysis. While maximal propagation distances in aquatic mammals are best explained by body mass, in terrestrial mammals, the effects of home range, with call type, habitat, and sociality, best explain maximal propagation distances. The difference between the effects of body mass and home range on maximal propagation distances of mammal sound signals suggests that sound propagation strongly depends on environmental pressures and evolutionary mechanisms, within physical laws. Evidence is provided that the acoustic adaptation hypothesis may be more associated with home range than body mass in terrestrial mammals, while predation may be an important component that fac..., , , # Data and code from: Evolution and drivers of long-distance vocal communication in mammals

Contents of Data-and-code_Evolution_and_drivers_of_long-distance_vocal_communication.zip:

1. csv Data => folder containing the datasets which were used to analyse: a) Excel Data File (1. MS_all-mammals_analysis.csv) => all mammals in the literature that had values for the maximal propagation distance of their vocal sounds (n = 103),
b) Excel Data File (2. MS_terrestrial-mammals_analysis.csv) => a subset containing only terrestrial mammals (n = 71), and
c) Excel Data File (3. MS_aquatic-mammals_analysis.csv) => a subset containing only aquatic mammals (n = 32).
2. Phylogenetic Tree File (1. MS_Median_NewickTree-PGLS_Propagation-Distance.txt) => folder containing the phylogenetic tree file used in the six PGLS analyses of the manuscript, in Newick String Form within a .txt file.
3. quarto code => folder containing the quarto code used to conduct six PGLS analyses of the manuscript, to be ru..., ,