Locomotion modes and geographic distribution ranges of 184 species of Sciuroidea.

We collected locomotion data of 184 species of Sciuridae and one species of its sister family Aplodontidae. We used Nowak (1999) as the main source of information of squirrel locomotion modes, and when needed we complemented this information with more specific bibliography (Emmons, 1980; Musser et al., 2010; Lim & Yeo, 2012). We followed Steppan et al. (2004) and assigned each species to one of the following categories: gliding (species with the ability to glide with the help of extending membranes), arboreal (species that live and nest in trees, even if spending some time on the ground), intermediate (species that spend most of the time on the ground, but can also spend some time in trees being good climbers), and terrestrial (species that live and nest on the ground, seldom if ever climbing). We also assigned species to one or more continental landmasses: Africa, Eurasia, North and Central America, and South America. This was based on the current distribution of species compiled by the IUCN (Schipper et al. 2008; data downloaded on December 2015).