cladistics

[ kluh-dis-tiks ]

noun

, Biology.

1. classification of organisms based on the branchings of descendant lineages from a common ancestor.

cladistics

/ kləˈdɪstɪks; ˈklædɪst; ˈklædɪzəm /

noun

1. functioning as singular biology a method of grouping animals that makes use of lines of descent rather than structural similarities

cladistics

/ klə-dĭs′tĭks /

1. A system of classification based on the presumed phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of groups of organisms, rather than purely on shared features. Many taxonomists prefer cladistics to the traditional hierarchies of Linnean classification systems.
2. Compare Linnean

cladistics

1. A method of taxonomic classification that groups organisms according to their lines of evolutionary descent. All descendants of a given organism are called a clade.

Derived Forms

• cladism, noun
• cladist, noun

Other Words From

• cla·distic adjective
• cla·disti·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of cladistics¹

1965–70; cladist(ic) ( clad-, -istic ) + -ics

Word History and Origins

Origin of cladistics¹

C20: New Latin, from Greek klādos branch, shoot

Example Sentences

He joined the American Museum of Natural History later that year, and made important contributions to the field of cladistics, which categorizes species along the lines of shared characteristics to build evolutionary trees.

From New York Times

The new idea was called cladistics and it is now the established idea.

From New York Times

But palaeontologists tore up that evolutionary tree when they started using a more rigorous form of analysis called cladistics in the 1990s.

From Nature

Western researchers and international journals have been using cladistics for more than two decades, but it has been slow to catch on in China.

From Nature

Luo says that Xu is one of only a few palaeontologists in China to embrace cladistics — a process for determining evolutionary relationships by analysing the features that groups share.

From Nature