----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Hello, I am performing a study to test for correlation between breadth of climatic tolerance and speciation & extinction rates in some mammal groups. To determine breadth of climatic tolerance for a given species, I plan to overlay a scanned version of its range onto separate global or continental maps for various long-term climatic means, including temperature and precipitation. ***Does anyone know where I might find such climatic maps already digitized and ready for ftp'ing? I have tried UNEP/GRID, but their precipitation map was in a format I couldn't use (ARC/INFO), and they have not been able to track down a long-term mean temperature data set. The best format for my use would be a raster format, but standard PC or Mac graphics file formats would be fine (eg. GIF, TIFF, PICT, PCX...). I am interested in highest-resolution-possible maps by continent, as well as for the entire globe; in particular, North America and Africa. Finally, maps in equal-area projections would be optimal, but I have the means to retransform a digitized map with a known common projection. I would be deeply grateful for anyone who can offer suggestions for me in this seach. Ben Strauss Dept. of Biology, Yale University