Morphological approaches to measuring biodiversity.

Morphological diversity has the potential to provide a very useful biodiversity metric in that if emphasizes essential aspects of diversity that are not picked up by taxonomic or phylogenetic metrics. While morphological diversity metrics are used increasingly in paleobiological studies, quantitative data on the spatial distribution of morphology in modern ecosystems are scarce. The comparison between different aspects of diversity is often essential in understanding the processes underlying observed biodiversity patterns.