Benthic species records of deep-sea fauna distributed along the Brazilian Continental Margin (BCM), synthesized from published databases, were mapped in ArcGIS and the here included shapefiles for each phylum were annexed. Two existing biogeographic schemes for the South Atlantic bathyal and abyssal depths (Spalding et al., 2007; Watling et al., 2013) were tested using the distribution data of benthic species along the BCM. A third biogeographic scheme was tested to assess the relationship between benthic fauna and deep water masses within the Brazilian EEZ. Species occurrences were assigned to the biogeographical units of each biogeographical scheme from which the three occurrences databases (watling, hybrid, water masses), included here, were generated.

Watling_scheme: Database of the deep-sea benthic records distributed following the biogeographical classification of Watling et al. (2013)Hybrid_scheme: Database of the deep-sea benthic records distributed following the MEOW biogeographical classification (Spalding et al., 2007) for upper bathyal depths (200-800 m), and Watling et al. (2013) for lower bathyal (800-3500 m) and abyssal depths (> 3500 m).Water_masses_scheme: Database of the deep-sea benthic records following the distribution of water masses in the water column for the South Atlantic.BCM_"Taxon"_occurence_maps: Shapefiles of the deep-sea benthic occurrences distributed along the Brazilian continental marginBenthic Fauna Database: Final Database of the deep-sea benthic records distributed along the Brazilian continental margin. Scientific species names included here correspond to the WoRMS terminology valid at the time of publication. The original version of scientific species names submitted by the authors (including several unaccepted names) is included in dataset https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.955785.Abbreviations: A: Annelida; BRA: Brachiopoda; BRY: Bryozoa; CN: Cnidaria; CR: Crustacea; ECH: Echinodermata; M: Mollusca; MEOW: Marine Ecoregions of The World; NEM: Nematoda; POR: Porifera; SIP: Sipuncula