Cladistics is one of the newest approaches to classification. It is often defined as a set of concepts and methods for determining cladograms, which portray branching patterns of evolution. Overall, it is a method of classification of animals and plants according to the proportion of measurable characteristics that they have in common. Thus, the organisms are grouped together based on whether or not they have one (or more) shared characteristics that are unique and that come from the group’s last common ancestor; in addition, the characteristics cannot be present in more distant ancestors.