CarniTraits: Functional traits of the worlds Late Quaternary terrestrial mammalian predators

CarniTraits, a comprehensive functional trait database of all late Quaternary (~130,000 ybp) terrestrial mammalian carnivore species (149 species, >1kg body mass). The database contains the body mass, diet, locomotion, cooperative hunting, hunting habitat, hunting method, bone use, and hunting temporal activity patterns of all carnivores over the last ~130,000 years. We also include the IUCN status for all extant species and ground the database in a modern phylogeny and is thus compatible and easily interlinked with range maps published in PHYLACINE v1.2.1. CarniTraits is broadly applicable to assisting in local and macroecological studies, meta-analytic research, global syntheses, and paleoecological research.

CarniTraits includes data on:

Body Mass

Diet

Scavenging behaviour

Bone Consumption

Locomotion

Cooperative hunting

Hunting habitat

Hunting method

Hunting time

Brain mass

Encephalisation Quotient

Each of these traits is fundamental to the ecological impact that carnivores have on terrestrial ecosystems. Trait data compiled represents the best available knowledge on the functional traits of late Quaternary hypercarnivorous mammals. As such, CarniTraits provides a tool for the analysis of carnivore functional diversity both past and present, as well as their effects on ecosystem dynamics.

Each trait is accompanied by columns that describes the confidence in the data (notes), whether it was inferred and what level it was inferred from and the reference that the data was collected from.