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Cladistics: Methods
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Cladistics is a method for arranging classes where class similarities are homologous or a result of inheritance. The ultimate product of cladistic analysis is a phylogenetic tree. Phylogenetic trees arranges sets of classes, or taxa in cladistic terminology, each related through a hypothetical common ancestor. Phylogenetic trees are hierarchical so that at each level in the hierarchy more taxa are included in an ancestor-descendent relationship. There is a single fundamental difference between cladistics and other similarity measures that arrange taxa into hierarchical sets. In cladistics, all similarities, including all homologous similarities, are not equally used to characterize relationships between taxa.
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Cladistics is a method of classification that taxa groups hierarchically into discrete sets and subsets (Kitching et al., 1998). It is ... known as phylogenetic systematics in biology, and it hypothesises the evolutionary relationships between organisms based on [D]erived similarities. Cladistics can (and has been) used to organise any comparative data (e.g. linguistics) but is greatest application has been in the field of biological systematics (Kitching et al., 1998). Cladistics is a method for implementing Darwin's concepts of ancestors and descendents (Kitching et al., 1998), using "shared derived traits" (synapomorphies: see below) of the organisms being studied. Cladistic analysis forms the basis for most modern systems of biological classification, which seek to group organisms by evolutionary relationships.
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Cladistics aims to reconstruct genealogies based on common ancestry... revealing the phylogenetic relationships between taxa. Its applications vary from linguistic analysis to the study of conservation and biodiversity, and it has become a method of choice for comparative studies in all fields of biiology. This new edition of
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Cladistics software takes care of the computational work of creating parsimonious trees given a set of data and there are several algorithms that can be followed to create trees. The method of Maximum Parsimony has been described here. Prior to the computational work... the analyst must construct a classification that describes phenomena by homologous character states (O'Brien et al. 2002, Scotland 1992) and determine for the taxa under consideration which character states are ancestral and which are derived. This is referred to as determining character polarity and is accomplished through the choice of an outgroup.
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Cladistics has proved to be a useful tool for biological taxonomy. Additionally, it has theoretically proved to be conceptually interesting in organisational taxonomy. In spite of the limitations identified, cladistics is believed to be capable of providing robust classifications that could aid to the achievement of manufacturing strategies. However, further research is required in two directions: to identify the best methodology to create cladograms and, to create a tool that links the theory of the classifications to the solution of pragmatic problems.
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Cladistics is a method used in biology and paleobiology to establish phylogeny: what produced what and in what order. It is a very specific method, developed in Germany in the 1950s and currently the primary phylogenetic method in the world. Cladistics has ... been applied to such fields as historical linguistics and manuscript history. If things evolve in a nonrandom way, they may be appropriately studied using this method.
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