Peter Kaplan, Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Published online: March 2004
DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001637
Disparity refers to the extent and statistical structure of the diversity of form among a set of taxa, measured in terms of a morphospace they co-occupy. Disparity provides an important and distinct perspective on biodiversity, as shown by comparisons between taxonomic and morphological diversity histories of individual clades.
Keywords: biodiversity; phenetics; morphometrics; morphospace; homology
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Figure 1. Concordance and discordance among temporal patterns in taxonomic diversity and morphological disparity. The occupation of a bivariate morphospace is shown for all taxa of a given clade in consecutive time slices (a), (b), and (c) and also shown schematically in (d). Each dot represents one species; survivors into the next time slice are shown as large dots. (a,b) Taxonomically intense, morphologically nonselective extinction from time a to time b produces an increase in variance-based disparity metrics but has little effect on range-based disparity metrics. (b,c) Morphologically selective extinction from time b to time c produces massive reductions in variance-based and range-based disparity metrics.
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| References | |
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| Further Reading | |
| Foote M (1997) The evolution of morphological disparity. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 28: 129–152. | |
| Foote M, Gould SJ, Lee MSY et al. (1992) Cambrian and Recent morphological disparity. Science 258: 1816–1818. | |
| book Gould SJ (1989) Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. London: Hutchinson. | |
| book Wills MA (2001) "Morphological disparity: A primer". In: Adrain JM, Edgecombe GD and Lieberman BS (eds.) Fossils, Phylogeny, and Form (Topics in Geobiology, vol. 19). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. | |
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