Life-History and Ecology Data for the Turtles of the World

A full understanding of life-history patterns and their evolution in turtles has been impeded by data gaps, particularly for reproductive data, for most species. With the goal of enabling a better understanding of turtle life-history variation and its correlates, we amassed a data set of traits for 2466 populations (captive and wild) of 323 species of turtles, including members of all 14 turtle families and 90% of the 357 extant, currently recognized species. For each turtle population, the data set includes general locality and latitude, habitat, diet, female carapace length and body mass, age at maturity, mean clutch size, egg shell type, mean egg length, width and mass, clutch mass, relative clutch mass (clutch mass/gravid body mass), clutch frequency, longevity, and data sources. The data set still lacks reproductive data of any kind for 34 species but represents the most complete assemblage of turtle life-history information to date.