High overlap of extant mammal ranges with sediment sinks indicates high fossilization potential of total diversity

Mammalian species richness is commonly highest at mid- to high-elevations, but the accumulation of sediment that might bury and preserve skeletal remains generally occurs at lower elevations, leading to concerns that fossil assemblages are biased towards low-elevation taxa. Here, I use extant mammals as an analogue to test the basin-scale spatial overlap between species ranges and sediment sinks where burial and fossilization would be possible. Sediment sinks are estimated within five topographically complex regions in western North America by identifying areas with both a low slope and a high contributing area of runoff and are compared with point occurrences of mammals compiled from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). I find that, among the test areas, 82-96% of all species have occurrences that overlap with a sediment sink, despite common offsets in the elevations of maximum sink area and maximum species richness: summed across all test areas, 83% of species and 87% ..., , # Data from: High overlap of extant mammal ranges with sediment sinks indicates high fossilization potential of total diversity

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0pd](10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0pd)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset includes primary results for each test area. Links to download the raw occurrence data are included in \"Access Information\".

### Files and variables

#### File: 1A_AKbinresults.csv

**Description:** Key results of this study for the Alaska test area, by 100 meter bins.

##### Variables

* bin: Value represents the lower bound of a 100m bin in the test area.
* spcount: Number of species in each bin. Species are assumed to be present in each bin between their lowest and highest occurring elevations in the test area.
* area: Total area of sediment sinks (km^2^) in each bin.
* primaryarea: Area of primary sediment sinks (km^2^) in each bin.
* secondarea: Area of secondary sediment sinks (km^2^) in each bin.
* thirdarea: Area of tertiary sed...,