Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Jataka tales are a large body of literature native to the Indian subcontinent concerning the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. The word Jataka comes from Sanskrit meaning "of the Birth" or "Birth Stories." Scholar Peter Skilling describes the genre as one of the oldest classes of Buddhist literature.
The Theravada Jatakatthavannana contains 547 Jatakas in mixed verse and prose, collected around 500 CE. It is the largest known collection of Jataka tales. According to Professor von Hinüber, only the last 50 were intended to be intelligible without commentary.
The verse portions of the Pali Jataka are dated from the fifth century BCE, making them among the very earliest parts of the Pali tradition. The later prose portions were incorporated up to the third century CE. Depictions of Jataka stories in early Indian art appear as far back as the second century BCE at Sanchi and Bharhut.
The Jatakamalā, or Garland of Jatakas, is a Sanskrit work by Āryaśūra containing 34 Jataka stories. It is considered perhaps the most influential Sanskrit Jataka text, notable for its use of classical literary devices. It was translated into Chinese in 434 CE, and all 34 of its Jatakas are depicted in stone at the ninth-century Borobudur site in Java.
Jataka tales were depicted at numerous ancient sites including Sanchi, Bharhut, Ajanta, Amaravati, Bagh, Mathura, and Nagarjunakonda in India, as well as at Borobudur in Java, the Mogao caves at Dunhuang, and Bagan in Burma. The Ananda Temple in Burma illustrates 554 Jataka tales. Some of the earliest known depictions date to the late second to first century BCE.
Yes. The tenth-century Shia scholar Ibn Babūya adapted a jataka into a story called Balawhar wa-Budasf, which was later retold by Christian authors as the narrative of Barlaam and Joasaph. Jainism also has a parallel tradition of stories about Mahavira's previous lives, though without an equivalent bodhisattva vow. The Hindu Pancatantra, dated to around 200 BCE, shares motifs with the Jataka tradition.