Clades
- The term clade can be defined as
- A group of organisms that have all descended from a common ancestor
- Cladistics is the branch of science in which scientists put organisms into clades
- It involves classification that is based on homologous characteristics rather than analogous characteristics
- Clades are formed on the basis of evolutionary relationships i.e. who is descended from which ancestor
- Note that while taxonomy is about classifying and then naming organisms, cladistics is about identifying evolutionary relationships between organisms
- A taxon is a group of organisms that have been given a group name by taxonomists on the basis on their shared features
- A clade is a group of organisms classified together on the basis of their shared descent from a common ancestor
- If taxonomy is carried out correctly then all of the members of a taxon should form a clade, but due to historical errors and the difficulties in distinguishing between true homologous characteristics and those that have come about by convergent evolution, this is not always the case
- Clades can include both living and extinct species
- Some of the descendants of a common ancestor may have gone extinct
- The common ancestor species itself may have gone extinct
- Clades can be large or small depending on the common ancestor being studied