Aim The expansive spatial scale of pelagic communities and the difficulty in acquiring pelagic species' functional traits have stymied an understanding of marine community dynamics. We assembled and analysed a shark trait database and community phylogeny to identify the major axes of trait variation that define shark functional groups. We tested whether membership to biophysical macroecological strata is related to these functional or phylogenetic relationships. Location Northeastern Pacific, 180–255°E and 0–50°N. Taxon Sharks (Class: Chondrichthyes, superorder: Selachimorpha). Methods We built a community phylogeny and collected habitat, reproductive, somatic growth, trophic and dentition traits. We used principal coordinates analyses to identify axes of trait variation and hierarchical clustering to classify functional groups. We tested whether functional or phylogenetic relatedness determined species' membership to strata from five macroecological gradients: latitude, habitat type, thermal, carbon source and bathymetry. Results We assembled 38 traits from 1225 records from 130 sources, 260 pictographs from seven sources and 631 teeth from 79 jaw specimens. Life history, r versus K selection, was responsible for the biggest division in the functional dendrogram. Vertical habitat preference, growth rates, diet and dental morphology generated further divisions between r‐ or K‐selected species. Vertical habitat preference, carbon source and biochemical habitat type were significantly dispersed or clustered on the functional dendrogram or phylogram. Main Conclusions Habitat and reproductive traits were the most important trait suites driving shark functional diversity. Through ordination and clustering, we were able to associate major axes of trait variation to the membership of shark functional groups. The phylogram approximated well the functional dendrogram's backbone but was a poor substitute for the trait diversity at the tips. Given the long evolutionary history of sharks and coincident expansive trait diversity, merging functional and phylogenetic approaches was necessary to capture the dimensions of shark biodiversity.

Body shape is a foundational trait on the differences between species. However, morphological measurements can be simplifying and, for many taxa, can be distorted upon preservation or are difficult to collect due to a species' habit or size. Scientific illustrations, or pictographs, provide information on a species' morphology but are rarely used as traits. Here, we demonstrate the use of pictographs using two shark clades: Lamniformes and Carcharhinidae + Sphyrnidae. After collecting 473 pictographs from 67 species across 12 sources, we used landmarking to show that measurements derived from pictographs do not substantially differ from those garnered from specimens. We then used Elliptical Fourier Analysis and principal components analysis to construct a multivariate morphospace. Using global shape measurements, we evaluated whether substantial variability in body shape was introduced by habitat association, endemism, or illustrator. We found that a species' habitat preference strongly influenced the discovery rate of pictographs and the within‐species similarity. While illustrations varied within a species, only a limited set of illustrators exhibited significant systematic variability. We also demonstrated the utility of pictographs in two common applications. For ancestral trait reconstruction, we developed a simple extension to estimate body shapes from principal components and, in doing so, observed that the Lamnid body plan diverged from the rest of Lamniformes ~100 MYA. For phylogenetic generalized linear mixed models (PGLMM), we found that the pictographs had greater explanatory power than traditional morphological measurements. We used the PGLMM to show that higher endemism across Carcharhinidae + Sphyrnidae taxa correlates with body shapes that have caudal fins with small heterocercal angles and more pronounced second dorsal/anal fins. We concluded that pictographs are likely an undervalued and easy‐to‐digitize data source on a species' body shape with numerous established methods for comparing pictographs and assessing variability.