Mammalian Evolutionary Rates, Body Size, and Life History Traits

A dataset of 52286 records examines correlations between nucleotide substitution patterns and biological parameters across placental mammals. It supports analyses of the Evolutionary Speed Hypothesis and Metabolic Theory, linking mutation rates to paleontological age, body size, maturation rate, lifespan, and litter size. The data conceptualizes mammalian families as a bipolar system based on these distinct evolutionary and life-history patterns.

Use Cases

• Testing the Evolutionary Speed Hypothesis based on correlations between mutation rates and metabolic parameters.
• Analyzing the relationship between life history strategies (e.g., r/K selection) and genetic substitution patterns.
• Investigating the correlation between paleontological age and the magnitude of transitive-transversive shifts in mammalian families.
• Modeling mammalian evolution as a bipolar system using data on body size, maturation rate, and litter size.

Strengths

• Contains a substantial volume of data with 52286 records.
• Explicitly licensed for reuse under CC-BY-4.0.
• Cross-platform presence on figshare suggests established sharing and potential for reuse.

Limitations

• Column names and a precise row count are not provided, limiting understanding of the data structure.
• The dataset's origin and collection methodology are not described.
• The temporal coverage and specific geographic scope of the mammalian data are unclear.

Provenance

Source

Svyatoslav Morozov-Leonov

Collection Method

Likely compiled from published paleontological, genetic, and life history studies.

Time Range

Paleontological age of mammalian families, but specific range not stated.

Freshness

Last updated March 22, 2026.

Geography

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