GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The ‘raw’ data for twenty-one different scaling variables are presented on this website. These data represent twenty-one medium- to large-sized datasets abstracted from a larger number of datasets employed in this study. The main features of these twenty-one datasets are summarized in Table 1, below. Collectively, these twenty-one datasets represent 6340 records (see Table 1, column 3, bottom row). Within each dataset the different species are identified by a species number. A unique identification number for each species was derived from Corbet and Hill (A World List of Mammalian Species (1980), London, British Museum (Natural History)). The successive entries on each page in Corbet and Hill (1980) were enumerated by hand using the odd numbers (1, 3, 5 etc.). Thus the second and third entries on any given page are numbered three and five (not two and three, as might be anticipated). 
For example, the species ID ‘701’ refers to the first entry on page 7 of Corbet and Hill, whereas the species ID ‘13423’ refers to the 12th entry on page 134. Occasionally species names from other sources were assigned an even numbered species identifier (e.g., the binomial name ‘Petrogale inornata’ does not appear in Corbet and Hill (1980); it was, for convenience, assigned the species ID ‘1722’, thus falling between P. godmani (1721) and P. pencillata (1723)).
Table 1. The main features of twenty-one scaling datasets.
VARIABLE	DATASETS	
	# RECORDS	# COLUMNS	# REFERENCES	
				
1.     BODY WEIGHT	1410	8	        18	
2.     BODY LENGTH	1266	7	           12/10†	
3.     BRAIN SIZE	  798	7	        37	
4.     GESTATION PERIOD	  345	7	         3	
5.     BODY TEMPERATURE	  317	6	        1	
6.     NEONATAL WEIGHT (n ≥ 1)*	 416	9	       11	
7.     NEONATAL WEIGHT (n = 1)*	 170	7	        7	
8.     PITUITARY VOLUME	 161	7	        1	
9.     THERMAL  CONDUCTANCE	 136	7	        1	
10.   TESTES WEIGHT OR MASS	 133	7	        58	
11.   HEART WEIGHT OR MASS	 126	7	        38	
12.   HEMATOCRIT                                     	 116   	6	         1	
13.   LUNG WEIGHT OR MASS	 115	7	        33	
14.   ADRENAL WEIGHT OR MASS	 110	7	        26	
15.   RED BLOOD CELL VOLUME              	 109	6	        1	
16.   DAILY WATER INTAKE	 106	7	        1	
17.   RESTING RESPIRATORY RATE	 103	7	        35 	
18.   THYROID WEIGHT OR MASS	 103	7	       24	
19.   SPLEEN WEIGHT OR MASS	 100	7	       32	
20.   SKIN THICKNESS	 100	7	       1	
21.   CEREBELLAR WEIGHT  OR MASS                                  	 100	7	      16	
				
TOTAL	6340	-	        -	
   	     †separate references are given for body weight (12) and body length (10); * ‘n’ refers to litter size

It should be recalled that species in the scaling literature, especially the older literature, are often identified only by a common name.  But a common name (such as jungle cat) may refer to more than one species. So it is possible that some inferred binomial names used in this study are incorrect. Moreover, a reader trained in mammalian taxonomy (as I am not) may find one or a few cases in the attached files where alternate binomial names actually refer to the same species. The primary application of taxonomic names (species, order) in this study is for estimating the diversity of mammals present in a sample.  As a rule, say for sample sizes greater than thirty, it is anticipated that such errors as may be present in the assignment of taxonomic names will have little effect on the calculated diversity indices (see Chapter 2, equation (2.2)).
For each of the twenty-one variables appearing in Table 1 the reader will, with one exception (variable 2.), find three files: an introduction, a numerical dataset (together with taxonomic names) and the complementary references. The introduction for each variable provides a brief summary of the main features of each dataset. The numerical dataset provides the data needed to carry out a variety of least squares calculations. The reference lists provide the sources of the numerical data. Keep in mind that there are two references lists for the body length dataset (see Table 1, second row, fifth column).