Generation length for mammals

Pacifici M, Santini L, Di Marco M, Baisero D, Francucci L, Grottolo Marasini G, Visconti P, Rondinini C (2013) Generation length for mammals. Nature Conservation 5: 87–94. doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.5.5734. Resource ID: Dryad key: 10.5061/dryad.gd0m3

Abstract
Generation length (GL) is defined as the average age of parents of the current cohort, reflecting the turnover rate of breeding individuals in a population. GL is a fundamental piece of information for population ecology as well as for measuring species threat status (e.g. in the IUCN Red List). Here we present a dataset including GL records for all extant mammal species (n=5427). We first reviewed all data on GL published in the IUCN Red List database. We then calculated a value for species with available reproductive parameters (reproductive life span and age at first reproduction). We assigned to missing-data species a mean GL value from congeneric or confamilial species (depending on data availability). Finally, for a few remaining species, we assigned mean GL values from species with similar body mass and belonging to the same order. Our work provides the first attempt to complete a database of GL for mammals; it will be an essential reference point for all conservation-related studies that need pragmatic information on species GL, such as population dynamics and applications of the IUCN Red List assessment.