We are celebrating the recent publication in Dryad of the first data to accompany a book [1, 2]. Odd Couples: Extraordinary Differences Between the Sexes in the Animal Kingdom, from Princeton University Press, examines the occasionally surprising gender differences in animals, and what it means to be male or female in the animal kingdom. It is intended for both general and scientific readers.

The author, Daphne Fairbairn, a professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside, and Editor-in-Chief of Evolution, a Dryad partner journal, describes the data as:

…a survey of all recorded sexual dimorphisms in all of the animal classes that contain dioecious species (species with separate sexes).  It categorizes the prevalence of dioecy, the types of differences between the sexes (size, shape, color, etc.) and the magnitude of the differences.  I use this survey to construct frequency plots in the book, but there was no room to publish the full survey results.  This is the first time that such a survey has been done and I am hoping that it will prove useful to other biologists who might use the data for hypothesis testing.  I might even get around to this myself!

I think these archived data are one of the most significant contributions of the book to the scientific literature, even though they will not be important for non-specialist readers.

While most data in Dryad accompany journal articles, we are happy to see data archiving catching on with other types of publications such as books, thesis dissertations and conference proceedings.  Please contact us if you are interested in submitting data and have any questions about its suitability for Dryad.

[1] Fairbairn DJ (2013) Data from: Odd couples: extraordinary differences between the sexes in the animal kingdom. Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.n48cm

[2] Fairbairn DJ (2013) Odd Couples: Extraordinary Differences Between the Sexes in the Animal Kingdom, Princeton University Press, ISBN:9780691141961.