regard sth as..., as of..., with..., as + ing

[Buno]

Hi!!

I wonder if someone can help me with this:

"A number of specific features and distinctive shapes were singled out and were regarded in terms of chronological relevance" or "were regarded as of chronological relevance" or "were regarded as having chronological relevance"

To make it simple, I would like to say that the author gave chronological relevance to morphological variations, but I would like to use "regard".

I do not want to go bananas with this sentence but I am trying to improve my understanding of the word "regard"

with appreciation!

Buno

[Tdol]

I would use 'were regarded as having' then, but given that authors gave them the significance, how about 'were held to have'?

[Buno]

thank you for your help!!