• Skip to Page Content
  • Skip to Site Navigation
  • Skip to Search
  • Skip to Footer
American Museum of Natural History
Share
OLogy Home
Games
Reading
Hands-on
Videos
Biology
Biodiversity
Brain
Genetics
Marine BiOLogy
MicrobiOLogy
PaleontOLogy
ZoOLogy
Human Cultures
AnthropOLogy
ArchaeOLogy
Earth & Space
Astronomy
Climate Change
Earth
Physics
Water
Type keyword(s) to search OLogy

OLogy Cards > Cladistics

OLOGY CARD 029
Series: Biology

Cladistics

Science is like a giant jigsaw puzzle with many of the pieces missing. To try to piece together how organisms are related, Museum scientists use cladistics (cluh-DIS-tiks). In this system, animals that share unique features, such as a backbone, are grouped together on an evolutionary tree called a cladogram.

Pronunciation: cluh-DIS-tiks
What It Is: a system to link organisms that have similar characteristics to a common ancestor in an evolutionary tree
Significance: gives scientists a way to diagram how animals and plants have changed over time without depending on the fossil record alone

Walking the Cladogram
Before 1995, a walk in the Dinosaur Halls at the American Museum of Natural History was a "walk through time" following the evolution of early to late dinosaurs. Museum scientists Mark Norell and Lowell Dingus came up with a new idea: to organize the exhibition halls according to cladistics. This would give visitors a chance to explore the dinosaur family tree. Before 1995, dinosaurs that lived at the same time were grouped together. Now the dinosaurs are grouped according to the characteristics they share. For example, stegosaurs, duckbills, and ankylosaurs are all in the Ornithischian Hall because of their similar hip structure. The giant sauropods, bipedal carnosaurs, and birds are all in the Saurischian Hall because their hand structure is alike.

Both cladistics and cladogram start with "clad." What does "cladistics" mean?

branch

group

bone

Correct!

"Clad" refers to the branches on the evolutionary tree.

What is a cladogram (CLAY-doh-gram)?

an urgent telegram sent to a scientist in the field

a diagram that shows how living organisms are related

a special tool that scientists use to observe animals in the field

Correct!

A cladogram is like an evolutionary family tree that shows how different groups of organisms with common features are related to each other.

All living creatures are related to each other.

Fact
OR
Fiction
?

Fact

All living organisms share a common ancestor. Cladograms allow us to look at the history of life on Earth.

Image credits: main image, © AMNH.

You might also like...

Tree of Life

Explore this family tree of living things on Earth.

Beyond T. rex

Meet some of the more unusual members of T. rex and Velociraptor's family tree.

What Do You Know About Life on Earth?

Test your knowledge about the major groups of life on Earth.

Page footer
  • Contact Us
  • OLogy Cards
  • For Educators
  • Credits
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright
  • OLogy Sitemap