Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun Biology. (used with a plural verb)
- classification of organisms based on the branchings of descendant lineages from a common ancestor.
noun
- (functioning as singular) biology a method of grouping animals that makes use of lines of descent rather than structural similarities
1960, from clade + -istic. Related: Cladistics “systematic classification of life forms” (1965; see -ics).
- 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. Compare Linnean.
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.