README file for datasets presented in the article Moreno, R.A., Labra, F.A, Cotoras, D.D., Camus, P.A., GutiŽrrez, D., Aguirre, L., Rozbaczylo, N., Poulin, E., Lagos, N.A., Zamorano, D. & M.M. Rivadeneira. Evolutionary drivers of the hump-shaped latitudinal gradient of benthic polychaete species richness along the Southeastern Pacific coast. PeerJ Dataset S1: Database containing the latitudinal distribution and taxonomy of 643 polychaete species along Southeastern Pacific coast ScientificName_accepted Species name from WoRMS database AphiaID_accepted Aphia ID including only accepted species in the WoRMS database Class As in World Record of Marine Species Order As in World Record of Marine Species Family As in World Record of Marine Species Genus As in World Record of Marine Species Author As in World Record of Marine Species LatN Northermost latitudinal distribution in the eastern Pacific (in decimal degrees), from Alaska to Antarctica LatS Southermost latitudinal distribution in the eastern Pacific (in decimal degrees), from Alaska to Antarctica LatRan Latitudinal range of of distribution, based on LatN and LatS LatMid Latitudinal midpoint of distribution, based on LatN and LatS sst Mean sea surface temperature at the latitudinal midpoint of distribution sstr Sea surface temperature range at the latitudinal midpoint of distribution sal Mean salinity at the latitudinal midpoint of distribution salr Salinity range at the latitudinal midpoint of distribution pp Mean primary productivity at the latitudinal midpoint of distribution Dataset S2: Database containing the local abundance of polychaete species in 57 soft-bottom sites along the Southeastern Pacific AphiaID_accepted Aphia ID including only accepted species in the WoRMS database ScientificName_accepted Species name from WoRMS database Class As in World Record of Marine Species Order As in World Record of Marine Species Family As in World Record of Marine Species Genus As in World Record of Marine Species Latitude Latitude (in decimal degrees) Longitude Longitude (in decimal degrees) Individuals Total number of individuals Site Site code Dataset S3: Database containing the environmental predictors used in the article Field Description Units Source Lat One-degree latitudinal bin (in decimal degrees) decimal degrees - Lon Median longitude for the latitudinal bin decimal degrees - sst Mean sea surface temperature degrees celcius BioOracle v.2.1 sst.range Sea surface temperature range degrees celcius BioOracle v.2.1 salinity Mean sea surface salinity PSS BioOracle v.2.1 salinity.range Sea surface salinity range PSS BioOracle v.2.1 productivity Primary productivity g.m-3.day-1 BioOracle v.2.1 shelf.area Shelf area km2 GMED database Script S4: R-script with instructions to reproduce Table 2 and all figures presented in the manuscript