This led me toward likelihood tests. Fundamentally, I used morphologic and stratigraphic data to test multiple hypotheses simultaneously. The math actually is pretty simple, although it is very different from the approaches used by molecular workers. Ultimately, I wish to test hypotheses about rates of character evolution, both among characters and over time. This way, both hypotheses get their best shot.
Stratigraphic data serve as an arbitrator of sorts.
Long term evolutionary dynamics. More recently, cladists have challenged this idea, asserting that only monophyletic groups have any biological reality. The truth of the matter is that associations between gross evolutionary patterns and morphology have not been adequately examined. Diversity studies, phylogenetic analyses and morphospace studies all require detailed stratigraphic data. To this end, I have compiled a large number of species lists that identify the species present at particular localities.