Cladistics

Two examples drawn from Wikipedia:

This method of organizing information is extremely useful for evolutionary biologists. Here's the current consensus on life's family tree for the past four billion years. Let me draw your attention to the position of animals, fungi and plants in the upper right corner, showing both our evolutionary recentness and biochemical similarities:

Darwin himself realized how clearly evolution could be modeled in this way. Here's a page from his notebook showing his first tree diagram:

Too bad Darwin didn't have a computer.

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