"Cladistics"

Dedicated to the inspiration for preidwhs: Patrick Reid

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Hello, I'm preidwhs and I love biology. A very
important part of biology is cladistics. Cladistics
is an approach to biological classification in which organisms
are grouped together based on whether or not they have
one or more shared unique characteristics that come from
the group's last common ancestor and are not present in
more distant ancestors. So basically, organisms
are grouped together based on what they have in common.
Let's explore that idea!

2

These are a few very different animals!
But we use cladograms in order to group
them together.

3

You see, both the salmon and the
salamander have lungs. Which means
that they are grouped together within
the cladogram.

4

The salamander and the lizard are also
closely related. Like the salmon, both of these
animals have lungs. But the lizard has something
that the salmon and the salamander do not: claws
or nails, which he uses to hunt prey.

5

These two animals, the lizard and the hamster,
share a multitude of qualities including lungs and
claws or nails. But the hamster has fur and mammary
glands, and the lizard does not. This is what causes
the hamster to be grouped without the lizard within the
cladogram.

6

We're almost done! This here is the chimpanzee (which
shares 96% of its DNA with you and me! Wow!).
Both the hamster and the chimp have lungs, claws or nails,
and fur and mammary glands. Although, the chimp, like
humans, has opposable thumbs. Which causes it to reside
high up on the cladogram! Let's take a look!