Cladograms

Each of these different phylogenies provide different results from the same data sets. Cladograms are a diagram that is used in cladistics to show the relation between different taxa. The one drawback to a cladogram is, that it doesn’t show how the taxa have changed over time. Cladograms use lines that branch off and end in clades, which are a group of taxa with a common ancestor. Parsimony analysis are basically the smallest number of character changes between the taxa “The parsimony analysis (PA) approach is to find the shortest tree (i.e., the one involving the fewest evolutionary innovations and character state transitions, which in therefore most parsimonious) among all possible trees that can explain the distribution of character states among the taxa …show more content…
All these methods are used to understand the evolution of a taxa. They all offer different views and results of the same data. When all are used in conjunction with one another they can paint the full picture of how the evolution process works within a certain taxon. Phylogenetics can be a powerful tool when trying to understand data gathered from an archaeological sites. Through the use of phylogenetics the evolutionary process can be teased out of the archaeological record. Just as phylogenetics have its strengths it also has its weaknesses when dealing with an evolutionary archaeological context. “New methods are rendering many of the old debates irrelevant, as the influence of phylogeny on the data distribution can now be tested, and phylogenetic uncertainty can also be incorporated. Within the phylogenetic framework, anthropologists are now asking - and sometimes answering – such questions empirically, and with a new level of precision.” (Mace and Holden 2005: 120) They are talking the prevalence of horizontal transmission, but this can also be applied to any phylogenetic study, as the older non-phylogenetic studies and ideas are being overtaken by phylogenetic studies and the ideas