How To Make A Cladogram printable pdf download

How To Make A Cladogram

How to Make a Cladogram

(Adapted from ENSI/SENSI lesson plan: Making Cladograms

)

Cladograms are diagrams which depict the relationships between different groups of taxa called

“clades”. By depicting these relationships, cladograms reconstruct the evolutionary history

(phylogeny) of the taxa. Cladograms can also be called “phylogenies” or “trees”.

Cladograms are constructed by grouping organisms together based on their shared derived

characteristics.

Example:

1. Given these characters and taxa:

Taxa

Characters

Shark

Bullfrog

Kangaroo

Human

Vertebrae

Two pairs of

limbs

Mammary

glands

Placenta

2. Draw a Venn diagram. Start with the character that is shared by all the taxa on the outside. Inside

each box, write the taxa that have only that set of characters.

Placenta: Human

Mammary glands: Kangaroo

Two pairs of limbs: Bullfrog

BHBu

Vertbrae: Shark

3. Convert the Venn diagram into a cladogram like so: