What are Cladograms?

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. It’s distinct from other taxonomic classification systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species. This is because it places heavy emphasis on objective and quantitative analysis. Cladistics generates diagrams called cladograms that represent the evolutionary tree of life. The starting point of cladistics analysis is a group of species and molecular, morphological, or other data characterizing those species. The end result is a tree-like relationship diagram which is the cladogram. It graphically represents a hypothetical evolutionary process.