Morphological disparity in elateriform beetles: patterns, trends and implications

Abstract Morphological disparity, reflecting the breadth of phenotypic variation within clades, offers critical insights into evolutionary dynamics beyond taxonomic diversity. Using a large discrete morphological character dataset, this study investigates disparity patterns in Elateriformia, a hyperdiverse beetle clade that includes click beetles, jewel beetles and their relatives, to explore macroevolutionary drivers of disparity within the clade and methodological challenges in disparity analy