Data from: Morphological disparity and evolutionary patterns of Cambrian hyoliths

Hyolitha represents one of the major components of the Cambrian
evolutionary fauna, first appearing in the Terreneuvian and rapidly
diversifying soon after. Recent work has both enriched the hyolith fossil
records and expanded our understanding of their biology, but studies
documenting the evolutionary trajectory of Cambrian hyoliths remain
scarce. Here we present the first study of changes in morphological
disparity in Cambrian hyoliths over time with the aim of characterizing
the evolutionary trajectory of hyoliths through their primary period of
diversification. Our results show that hyoliths occupy distinct regions of
morphospace at different times during the Cambrian, with an expansion in
morphospace occupation associated with the increase in hyolith diversity
in the early Cambrian. Both the Sinsk Event and multiple abiotic factors
led to a decline in hyolith diversity in the Miaolingian, and
morphological disparity also contracts in association with this reduction
in diversity.