Data from: Body size evolution in mammals: complexity in tempo and mode

Body size correlates with virtually every aspect of species' biology,
so understanding the tempo and mode of its evolution is of key importance
in macroecology and macroevolution. Here we use body-mass data from 3473
of 4510 extant mammalian species and an almost complete species-level
phylogeny to determine the best model of log(body-mass) evolution across
all mammals, split taxonomically and spatially. An early-burst model fits
better across all mammals than models based on either Brownian motion or
an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, suggesting that mammals experienced a burst
of morphological evolution relatively early in their history followed by
slower change subsequently. We also use spatial models to investigate
rates of body-mass evolution within ecoregions. These models show that
around 50% of the variation in rate can be explained by just a few
predictors. High estimated rates are associated with cold, low lying,
species-poor, high energy, mainland ecoregions. We conclude that the
evolution of mammalian body size has been influenced by a complex
interplay among geography, climate and history.