clade
Sign in to savethumb|400px| Cladogram (a branching tree diagram) illustrating the relationships of organisms within groups of taxa known as clades. The vertical line (stem) at the base (bottom) represents the [[last common ancestor. The blue and red subgroups are clades, each defined by a common ancestor stem at the base of its respective subgroup (branch). The green subgroup alone, however, is not a clade; it is a paraphyletic group relative to the blue subgroup because it excludes the blue branch, which shares the same common ancestor. Together, the green and blue subgroups form a clade.]]
AI overview
A clade is a group of organisms that includes a common ancestor and all of its descendants, shown as branches on a tree diagram. Scientists use clades to understand evolutionary relationships because they reveal which species are most closely related by shared ancestry.
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Article
12 sectionsContents
- Naming and etymology
- History of nomenclature and taxonomy
- Definition
- Clades and phylogenetic trees
- Terminology
- Age
- Viruses
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
thumb|400px| Cladogram (a branching tree diagram) illustrating the relationships of organisms within groups of taxa known as clades. The vertical line (stem) at the base (bottom) represents the [[last common ancestor. The blue and red subgroups are clades, each defined by a common ancestor stem at the base of its respective subgroup (branch). The green subgroup alone, however, is not a clade; it is a paraphyletic group relative to the blue subgroup because it excludes the blue branch, which shares the same common ancestor. Together, the green and blue subgroups form a clade.]]
In biology, a clade () (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields.