cladistic

[kluh-dist-ik]

adjective

1. Biology.,  relating to or using cladistics, a method of taxonomic classification based on common ancestry.

Example Sentences

Take, for instance, cladistic analysis, which identifies discrete, heritable anatomical features that can be compared between animals and that provide a statistical basis for testing hypotheses about the relationships of animals to one another.

From Scientific American

Today, the method is so well established that the museum’s dinosaur halls are organized according to evolutionary ties, and the cladistic trees are inlaid in the floor.

From New York Times

That animal has long been regarded as the oldest known bird, but Xu and his colleagues performed a cladistic analysis that knocked from its special perch on the bird lineage, relegating it to a different branch along with a host of other feathered dinosaurs.

From Nature

That study has met resistance from some other palaeontologists, who question the strength of the cladistic analysis and say that the evolutionary relationships will remain unclear until more early birds and their close relatives are discovered.

From Nature

O’Connor .’s lengthy review of Mesozoic bird taxa is thorough and extremely well illustrated; the chapter is further useful in providing a large cladistic analysis.

From Scientific American