Fossil and occurrence points of Rhinocerotidae, Elephantidae, Equus, and Camelus in China from the Pleistocene to the present
Data files
Sep 06, 2024 version files 56.49 KB
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historical_occurrence.rar
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README.md
Abstract
Rhinocerotidae, Elephantidae, Equus, and Camelus are large herbivorous mammals that have inhabited China from the Pleistocene to the present. Wen et al. studied a large amount of historical data to map the historical occurrences of these animals in China, including a small number of fossil sites and a majority of occurrence points recorded in the literature. We digitized the paper maps of these four taxa to create this dataset. This dataset includes 899 records of Rhinocerotidae, 534 records of Elephantidae, 277 records of Equus, and 417 records of Camelus.
README: Histroical occurrence data of Rhinocerotidae, Elephantidae, Equus and Camelus
We submitted the shapefile-format data of fossil sites and occurrence points for the four taxa (Rhinocerotidae, Elephantidae, Equus and Camelus). These files have been compressed into a .rar archive (historical_occurrence.rar).
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains shapefile-format data for the four taxa. These data can be viewed and edited using software such as ArcGIS and QGIS. The dataset contains six attributes: FID, Shape, Id, Name, data_type, and Period. The last three attributes provide the primary information.
Name :The scientific name of the animal. Some data from more recent time periods can be identified to the species level, but most records only include the family or genus name.
data_type : This attribute has three possible values: '0', '1', and '2'. '0' represents a fossil site record. '2' represents a record of a current (21st century) animal occurrence point. '1' indicates a historical occurrence point, not from the present.
Period: The temporal information for the animal fossil site or occurrence point. This attribute includes the following values: 'Early Pleistocene', 'Middle Pleistocene', 'Late Pleistocene', 'Holocene', 'before the 20th century', 'First half of the 20th century', 'Second half of the 20th century', 'Present', and 'Reintroduced'. 'Reintroduced' refers to species that had gone extinct in China but were reintroduced through human efforts and are now residing in China again.
Methods
The original data were obtained from the book The Distributions and Animals in China compiled by Wen et al. Wen et al. collected historical records, animal fossils, murals, painted pottery, and other materials to determine the fossil sites and occurrence points of animals. They standardized and classified animals with various names from the literature, although most classifications could not be refined to the species level. Locations where animal fossils were found were recorded as fossil points. Multiple fossil individuals found at the same location were recorded as a single fossil point. The locations extracted from materials such as painted pottery and murals were treated similarly. However, the recorded occurrence points in the literature were not as precise. Only a few occurrence points had mapped locations, while most were marked at the center of the administrative regions where they were reported. Wen et al. plotted the fossil sites and occurrence points on paper maps. We scanned these paper maps into electronic files. Using ArcGIS, we performed georeferencing and digitization to obtain the shapefile-format data for fossil sites and occurrence points.