Biological Metaphor and Cladistic Classification: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

The dynamic aspect of biological systems—the birth, growth, and death of individual organisms, the evolution of one form into another over time—has formed the basis for metaphors used in many fields for both artistic and heuristic purposes. Cladistic classification uses a tree whose branch points are based on the possession of derived or relatively recent characteristics, rather than primitive ones.

Henry M. Hoenigswald was Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Linda F. Weiner is on the faculty of St. Johns College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.