DOI: 10.5061/dryad.k6djh9wfj
title: Fossil and occurrence points of Rhinocerotidae, Elephantidae, Equus, and Camelus in China from the Pleistocene to the present

description: 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.
description:  The original data were obtained from the book <em>The
 Distributions and Animals in China</em> 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.
description: # 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.