Classifying organisms on the basis of descent from a common ancestor is called phylogenetic classification. It is based on evolutionary ancestry and generates trees called cladograms. Cladistics also identifies clades, which are groups of organisms that include an ancestor species and its descendants.
The term "phylogeny" derives from the German Phylogenie, which was introduced by Ernst Haeckel in 1866. He was was a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist, and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms and coined many terms in biology, including anthropogeny, ecology, phylum, phylogeny, and Protista.
