Richness patterns in vertebrates are robust to the Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls

Nearly all research has to rely on imprecise data. This poses a challenge of knowing which conclusions are reliable despite potential data quality issues. One field fundamentally affected by this is macroecology. Can we understand drivers of biodiversity patterns without having fully reliable distributional data? In this paper, we investigated the reliability of biodiversity patterns focused on three groups of terrestrial vertebrates ranging from very well-known (birds and mammals) to relatively poorly known (amphibians). We compared two expert-derived sets of range maps generated more than 10 years apart. We found that the overall spatial diversity patterns between the two sets were extraordinarily similar for all three groups but that nearly half of all species had changes in taxonomy and or distribution. We further found that the minute changes in richness we did see were nearly exclusively driven by changes in the mapped ranges of already known species rather than the discovery of n..., , , # Richness patterns in vertebrates are robust to the Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls.

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v15dv4270](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v15dv4270)

## Description of the data and file structure

All codes used to process the data in the paper have been uploaded as Software.
Codes are found in a total of 21 files, names in order they are processed. Code_11 to Code_18 deals with initial data processing. Code_21 to Code_26 performs statistical tests, Code_31 to Code_37 creates all figures.
We have also uploaded two files from the appendix in csv files.
Table_A1 contains all species deleted between two time points
Table_A1 contains all species added between two time points

### Files and variables

#### File: Table\_A1.csv

**Description**: contains all species deleted between two time points

##### Variables

* Group: If the species is a mammal, a bird or an amphibian
* Order: Taxonomic order
* Family: Taxonomic family
* Name_2023: The binomial name of the species t...