ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Clade

A clade is a way of grouping similar living things, like plants or animals, based on their evolutionary history. Think of it like a family tree, but for all living things!

Let's say we want to group all the animals with backbones, like fish, birds, and humans. We can start by looking back in time to when the first animal with a backbone existed. Any animal that descended from that first one would be in the same "family" or clade.

It's like if you and your cousins all traced your family back to your great-great-great-grandparents. You would all be in the same family clade because you all came from the same starting point.

Scientists use clades to help understand how different living things are related to each other and how they evolved over time. It's a way of organizing and making sense of the vast diversity of life on Earth.