Give a brief summary of dataset contents, contextualized in experimental procedures and results.
The datasets contain metadata and measurements of the teeth of carnivore species, collected from museum specimens or from wild animals, and analysed to show species difference and changes with body size and age in tooth eruption and size.

Description of the data and file structure

All measurements are in millimetres. Tooth wear scores are ordered categorical variables defined in the paper.
All blank cells are where data was missing; these are dealt with during analysis according to the format of the package.

There are four data files with contents and column headings as follows:

MRSPLC_1_Dryad.xls – museum measurements of canine teeth of placental and marsupial carnivores from museum collections. The first worksheet contains the data and the second worksheet the species names. Acronyms of column headings and data content (excluding the species names) are as follows:
• Subcl = subclass of mammal, M = marsupial, P = placental
• Species = acronym for each species as defined in the paper: Marsupial carnivores: Dv = D. viverrinus, eastern quoll; Dm = Dasyurus maculatus, spotted-tailed quoll; Sh = Sarcophilus harrisii, Tasmanian devil; Tc = Thylacinus cynocephalus, thylacine. Placental carnivores: Vp = Vormela peregusna, marbled polecat; Mf = Martes foina, beech marten; Hi = Herpestes ichneumon, Egyptian mongoose; Mc = Meles canescens, Caucasian badger; Ca = Canis aureus, golden jackal; Cl = Canis lupus, grey wolf; Hh = Hyaena hyaena, spotted hyaena.
• Sex - F = female, M = male
• Cbl = condylobasal length of the skull (in millimetres - mm)
• totht = total canine tooth height (mm)
• crht = crown height of canine tooth (mm)
• erupt = measure of the amount of over-eruption of the canine tooth (mm)
• urcn = the tooth wear score for the upper right canine tooth (ordered categorical variable defined in the paper)

Mus_Mars_Teeth_Dryad.xls – measurements of teeth of Australian marsupial carnivores from museum specimens. Acronyms of column headings and data content (excluding the species names) are as follows:
• SPECIES = species, with EQ = eastern quoll, SQ = spotted-tailed quoll, TD = Tasmanian devil
• SEX - F = female, M = male
• CBL = condylobasal length of the skull (mm)
• JAW = jaw length (mm)
• APDS = maximum anteroposterior diameter of the canine tooth at the edge of the skull (mm)
• MLDS = maximum mediolateral diameter of the canine tooth at the edge of the skull (mm)
• CHS = canine tooth height at the edge of the skull (mm)
• APDJ = maximum anteroposterior diameter of the canine tooth at the enamel cervical margin (mm)
• MLDJ = maximum mediolateral diameter of the canine tooth at the enamel cervical margin (mm)
• CHJ = canine tooth height from the tip to the enamel cervical margin (mm)
• CE = amount of canine over-eruption = CHS – CHJ (mm)
• M1CHS = molar tooth height at edge of skull for M1 (repeated for M2, M3 and M4) (mm)
• M1CHJ = molar tooth height from the tip to the enamel cervical margin for M1 (repeated for M2, M3 and M4) (mm)
• M1E = measure of the amount of over-eruption on M1 = M1CHS - M1CHJ (repeated for M2, M3 and M4) (mm)
• URCN = wear score on upper right canine tooth (ordered categorical variable defined in the paper)
• M1 – wear score on M1 (repeated for M2, M3 and M4) (ordered categorical variable defined in the paper)

CMCANINE.xls – field measurements of devils and quolls collected from a wild population at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. Acronyms of column headings and data content are as follows:
• SP = species, with EQ = eastern quoll, SQ = spotted-tailed quoll, TD = Tasmanian devil
• IDV = individual number
• SEX = F = female, M = male
• Date = day/month/year
• AGE_months = age in months since birth (devils in March, quolls in June)
• WT = body weight (kg)
• CNL = total canine height (mm)
• MLD = maximum mediolateral diameter of the canine tooth (mm)
• APD = maximum anteroposterior diameter of the canine tooth (mm)

Wearxht_Dryad.xls – has the tooth wear scores for canine and molar teeth for wild marsupial carnivores. Acronyms for species, sex are the same as for CMCANINE.xls. Other acronyms are:
• Species = EQ = eastern quoll, SQ = spotted-tailed quoll, TD = Tasmanian devil
• Sex = F = female, M = male
• Type = C = canine tooth, M1 to M4 = molar teeth
• Wear = canine and molar tooth wear score (ordered categorical variable defined in the paper)
• Meas = type of measure: TOTAL = total tooth height, CROWN = crown height, ROOT = the amount of over-eruption
• Height = the tooth measurement (mm)

Sharing/Access information

Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data:

• The data are not in any other publicly accessible location

Data was derived from the following sources:

• measured by the author on wild animals and on skulls in museum collections

Code/Software

Data were analysed using generalised linear models in standard packages on the R platform